Integrated photonic structures increase communications capabilities within aircraft Published Feb. 26, 2008 By Maria Callier (Anadarko/CIBER Team) Air Force Office of Scientific Research Public Affairs ARLINGTON, Va. -- An AFOSR-funded team has demonstrated that integrated photonic structures increase communications and signal processing capabilities from different parts of an Air Force aircraft. Dr. Adi Adibi, of the Center for Advanced Processing Tools for Electromagnetic/Acoustics Crystals at the Georgia Institute of Technology, notes that the key innovation in this research was designing the photonic crystal structures. Dr. Gernot Pomrenke, AFOSR Program Manager said, "Professor Adibi is a central participant in the AFOSR nanophotonics program. His photonic crystal concepts will enable the design and realization of a whole new class of devices for advanced military communications and signal processing systems." Recently, the team has demonstrated that by using higher bands of photonic crystals they can improve the performance of those structures. "We have extended the design of the demultiplexers into devices that take a single input that carries many signals and separates them over multiple outputs that measure the spread of optical energy over the wavelength. These devices called spectrometers are in high demand for all-optical sensing for a variety of applications including detection of harmful gases, biological, chemical agents and explosives," said Dr. Adibi. The next step beyond the improvement of the demultiplexers' performance is to combine them with other structures to form integrated photonic modules for sophisticated signal processing and communications functions. Through support of research projects such as the one led by Dr. Adibi, AFOSR continues to expand the horizon of scientific knowledge through its leadership and management of the Air Force's basic research program.