Mohamed ElKabbash, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
The exponential growth of artificial intelligence (AI) workloads has driven a paradigm shift in how information is moved and processed at scale. A central development in this domain is the rise of optical engines, which integrate light sources, modulators, and detectors to overcome the electronic SerDes bottleneck in data movement. I will discuss the motivation behind the push toward co-packaged optics, where photonic components are placed in close proximity to electronics to reduce energy consumption and increase bandwidth density. Particular emphasis will be placed on the challenges that hinder practical deployment, including the temperature sensitivity of semiconductor lasers and electro-optic modulators, the complexity of chip–fiber coupling at high channel counts, and the trade-offs between density, stability, and bit-error rate. Potential solutions such as temperature-stable integrated sources, efficient chip-coupling strategies, and athermal photonic designs will be highlighted.
The second part of the talk turns to thin-film nanophotonics, an emerging area that extends the traditional role of optical coatings beyond interference filters and structural coloring. By exploiting resonant and interference phenomena in multilayer stacks, thin-film coatings can mimic atomic-physics-like effects such as Fano resonances and be engineered for advanced energy applications, precision sensing, and photonic information processing. I will present our efforts on thin-film photonic computing architectures, where diffractive layers establish non-trivial spatial correlations for low-latency matrix operations, as well as photonic memory and edge sensing under low signal-to-noise conditions. Finally, I will discuss our ongoing work toward realizing transmissive extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lenses at 13.5 nm using Si/Mo multilayers, a long-standing challenge in nanolithography and imaging. Together, these directions illustrate how optical engines and thin-film nanophotonics are reshaping the future of information technologies and beyond.