Hongwei Zhao

University of California, Santa Barbara

Postdoctoral Researcher

Hongwei Zhao received the B.S. and M.S. degrees from Huazhong University of Science and Technology, and the Institute of Semiconductors, Chinese Academy of Sciences. She received the Ph.D. degree from University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) in 2019. She is now a postdoc researcher at the Integrated Photonics Lab in UCSB.

Research Abstract:

The central theme of my PhD research was to investigate integrated photonic techniques for free space optical communications. I was focused on the two topics: 1) High-power indium phosphide (InP) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) for free space links; 2) Gate-tunable metasurface based on novel indium silicon oxide material toward beam steering.

A novel platform for high power InP PICs was demonstrated. This platform is capable of a record output power of nearly 250 mW, which is significantly higher than conventional PIC platforms, reducing the requirements on an external high-power booster amplifier and enabling certain links without the need for an amplifier.

Tunable metasurface based on novel indium silicon oxide material was demonstrated for the first time. The obtained large resonance shift can be further investigated to realize phased arrays of subwavelength resonators for flat optical elements, LIDAR and beam steering/pointing in free space optical communications.

For my postdoc research, I am working on the monilithic integration of III-V lasers on Si substrates. We are also working on the integration of other advanced photonic devices on this platform.