PhD in Advanced Epitaxial Growth for InP-Based Photonic Integrated Circuits

Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) are used more and more used to overcome data bottlenecks, offering massive improvements in energy efficiency and bandwidth and opening up new applications. They are critical to the scaling of modern data centers, telecommunications networks, and advanced sensing applications in healthcare, mobility, and agrifood. This PhD position is focusing on the foundation of the PIC: the epitaxial growth of the functional materials. These can be engineered to e.g. emit or amplify light, transport light on the chip of efficiently modulate the phase of the light. The project will encompass:

• Explore the limits of epitaxial growth for InP-based materials (InGaAsP and InAlGaAs) using a newest-generation Aixtron epi reactor
• Correlate epitaxial growth parameters to the electro-optical performance and reliability of active components such as lasers and amplifiers
• Investigate the science behind yield and manufacturability by developing predictive models to connect the physics and chemistry of Metal Organic Vapour Phase Epitaxy to successful large-scale integration of PICs

Information
Photonic integrated circuits - or optical chips - have evolved into a mature technology with a broad spectrum of use cases and a diversity of building blocks. For Indium Phosphide (InP) platforms, active components like lasers and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) are the engines of these circuits. The foundation of the performance of these devices lies in the precision of the underlying material. As the industry pushes towards large-scale integration, mastering the material growth, understanding the limits of the process, and understanding the science underpinning yield learning and manufacturability becomes of crucial importance.

We are seeking a PhD researcher to develop a deep understanding of the epitaxial growth of InP and its related compounds, specifically InGaAsP and InAlGaAs. Utilizing our state-of-the-art, newest-generation Aixtron epi reactor, you will explore the fundamental limits of the growth process. Your research will focus on optimizing material uniformity and directly correlating these foundational epitaxial properties to the final performance of (active and passive) photonic components. By mastering the growth phase, you will lay the groundwork for next-generation optical generation and amplification.

Furthermore, a significant pillar of this project is the science behind yield. You will conduct rigorous data analysis to gain insights into device yield, developing a deep understanding of failure mechanisms and sources of defects to improve long-term reliability. By establishing predictive models and novel process methods, you will aim to increase the accuracy and repeatability of manufacturing. To achieve this, you will collaborate closely with commercial foundry partners, leveraging real-life fab data to support and validate your models.

The position builds on the pioneering work in the foundry production of complex photonic integrated circuits in the JePPIX Pilot Line. The appointed person will work closely with a team of InP PIC technology experts inside the Photonic Integration Group and externally with integrated photonics researchers at our foundry partners.