No Arabic abstract
We propose and demonstrate a low-cost integrated photonic chip fabricated in a SOI foundry capable of simultaneously routing and amplifying light in a chip. This device is able to compensate insertion losses in photonic routers. It consists of standard Si/SiO2 ring resonators with Er:Al2O3 as the upper cladding layer, employed using only one simple post-processing step. This resulted in a measured on/off gain of 0.9 dB, with a footprint smaller than 0.002 mm2, and expected bit rates as high as 40Gb/s based on the resonance quality-factor. We show that the on/off gain value can be further increased using coupled rings to reach net gain values of 4 dB.
By harnessing quantum superposition and entanglement, remarkable progress has sprouted over the past three decades from different areas of research in communication computation and simulation. To further improve the processing ability of microwave pho-tonics, here, we have demonstrated a quantum microwave photonic processing system using a low jitter superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) and a time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) module. This method uniquely combines extreme optical sensitivity, down to a single-photon level (below -100 dBm), and wide processing bandwidth, twice higher than the transmission bandwidth of the cable. Moreover, benefitted from the trigger, the system can selectively process the desired RF signal and attenuates the other in-tense noise and undesired RF components even the power is 15dB greater than the desired signal power. Using this method we show microwave phase shifting and frequency filtering for the desired RF signal on the single-photon level. Besides its applications in space and under-water communications and testing and qualification of pre-packaged photonic modulators and detectors. This RF signal processing capability at the single-photon level can lead to significant development in the high-speed quantum processing method.
Gallium phosphide (GaP) is an indirect bandgap semiconductor used widely in solid-state lighting. Despite numerous intriguing optical properties---including large $chi^{(2)}$ and $chi^{(3)}$ coefficients, a high refractive index ($>3$), and transparency from visible to long-infrared wavelengths ($0.55-11,mu$m)---its application as an integrated photonics material has been little studied. Here we introduce GaP-on-insulator as a platform for nonlinear photonics, exploiting a direct wafer bonding approach to realize integrated waveguides with 1.2 dB/cm loss in the telecommunications C-band (on par with Si-on-insulator). High quality $(Q> 10^5)$, grating-coupled ring resonators are fabricated and studied. Employing a modulation transfer approach, we obtain a direct experimental estimate of the nonlinear index of GaP at telecommunication wavelengths: $n_2=1.2(5)times 10^{-17},text{m}^2/text{W}$. We also observe Kerr frequency comb generation in resonators with engineered dispersion. Parametric threshold powers as low as 3 mW are realized, followed by broadband ($>100$ nm) frequency combs with sub-THz spacing, frequency-doubled combs and, in a separate device, efficient Raman lasing. These results signal the emergence of GaP-on-insulator as a novel platform for integrated nonlinear photonics.
Silicon photonics is becoming a leading technology in photonics, displacing traditional fiber optic transceivers in long-haul and intra-data-center links and enabling new applications such as solid-state LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) and optical machine learning. Further improving the density and performance of silicon photonics, however, has been challenging, due to the large size and limited performance of traditional semi-analytically designed components. Automated optimization of photonic devices using inverse design is a promising path forward but has until now faced difficulties in producing designs that can be fabricated reliably at scale. Here we experimentally demonstrate four inverse-designed devices - a spatial mode multiplexer, wavelength demultiplexer, 50-50 directional coupler, and 3-way power splitter - made successfully in a commercial silicon photonics foundry. These devices are efficient, robust to fabrication variability, and compact, with footprints only a few micrometers across. They pave the way forward for the widespread practical use of inverse design.
Integrated-photonics microchips now enable a range of advanced functionalities for high-coherence applications such as data transmission, highly optimized physical sensors, and harnessing quantum states, but with cost, efficiency, and portability much beyond tabletop experiments. Through high-volume semiconductor processing built around advanced materials there exists an opportunity for integrated devices to impact applications cutting across disciplines of basic science and technology. Here we show how to synthesize the absolute frequency of a lightwave signal, using integrated photonics to implement lasers, system interconnects, and nonlinear frequency comb generation. The laser frequency output of our synthesizer is programmed by a microwave clock across 4 THz near 1550 nm with 1 Hz resolution and traceability to the SI second. This is accomplished with a heterogeneously integrated III/V-Si tunable laser, which is guided by dual dissipative-Kerr-soliton frequency combs fabricated on silicon chips. Through out-of-loop measurements of the phase-coherent, microwave-to-optical link, we verify that the fractional-frequency instability of the integrated photonics synthesizer matches the $7.0*10^{-13}$ reference-clock instability for a 1 second acquisition, and constrain any synthesis error to $7.7*10^{-15}$ while stepping the synthesizer across the telecommunication C band. Any application of an optical frequency source would be enabled by the precision optical synthesis presented here. Building on the ubiquitous capability in the microwave domain, our results demonstrate a first path to synthesis with integrated photonics, leveraging low-cost, low-power, and compact features that will be critical for its widespread use.
(Si)GeSn semiconductors are finally coming of age after a long gestation period. The demonstration of device quality epi-layers and quantum-engineered heterostructures has meant that tunable all-group IV Si-integrated infrared photonics is now a real possibility. Notwithstanding the recent exciting developments in (Si)GeSn materials and devices, this family of semiconductors is still facing serious limitations that need to be addressed to enable reliable and scalable applications. The main outstanding challenges include the difficulty to grow high crystalline quality layers and heterostructures at the desired Sn content and lattice strain, preserve the material integrity during growth and throughout device processing steps, and control doping and defect density. Other challenges are related to the lack of optimized device designs and predictive theoretical models to evaluate and simulate the fundamental properties and performance of (Si)GeSn layers and heterostructures. This Perspective highlights key strategies to circumvent these hurdles and bring this material system to maturity to create far-reaching new opportunities for Si-compatible infrared photodetectors, sensors, and emitters for applications in free-space communication, infrared harvesting, biological and chemical sensing, and thermal imaging.