Established in 2022, the Optoelectronics and Photonics Lab of the Avionics Department specializes in advanced optical communication experiments. Our focus is on high-speed data transmission using a 1550nm wavelength laser. Our research includes the fabrication and testing of various optical components, such as PIN modulators, Mach-Zehnder modulators, beam steering devices, tunable MMI splitters, and the design of highly efficient nanocone solar cells. Notably, the beam steering device developed in our lab is the first of its kind to steer a single wavelength laser along a two-dimensional axis. Our modulators can modulate up to 23 Gbps of message signals.

Our lab is equipped with a C-band tunable laser source, an IR camera, an EDFA, photodetectors, CMOS cameras, and other essential instruments. We utilize advanced software tools such as Ansys Lumerical and Tcad Sentaurus to design semiconductor devices. Our experimental setup for optical communication experiments is built in-house, and semiconductor optical devices are designed using Lumerical and Sentaurus software and fabricated either in our clean room or through the INUP facilities available across India.

To date, we have published four international journal papers, with two more currently under peer review. As we strive to become a premier lab for optical communication experiments, we are in the final stages of acquiring an Optical Spectrum Analyzer and a high-frequency oscillator to conduct most of our experiments within the lab itself.