Pixelated non-volatile programmable photonic integrated circuits with 20-level intermediate states

Multi-level programmable photonic integrated circuits(PICs)and optical metasurfaces have gained widespread attention in many fields,such as neuromorphic photonics,opticalcommunications,and quantum information.In this paper,we propose pixelated programmable Si_(3)N_(4)PICs with record-high 20-level intermediate states at 785 nm wavelength.Such flexibility in phase or amplitude modulation is achieved by a programmable Sb_(2)S_(3)matrix,the footprint of whose elements can be as small as 1.2μm,limited only by the optical diffraction limit of anin-house developed pulsed laser writing system.We believe our work lays the foundation for laser-writing ultra-high-level(20 levels and even more)programmable photonic systems and metasurfaces based on phase change materials,which could catalyze diverse applications such as programmable neuromorphic photonics,biosensing,optical computing,photonic quantum computing,and reconfigurable metasurfaces.

Monolithically Integrated Photonic Structures for Stable On-Chip Solar Blind Communications

A solar-blind multi-quantum well(MQW)structure wafer based on AlGaN materials is epitaxial growth by metal-organic chemical vapor deposition(MOCVD).The monolithically integrated photonic chips including light-emitting diodes(LEDs),waveguides,and photodetec-tors(PDs)are presented.The results of the finite-difference time-domain(FDTD)simulation confirm the strong light constraint of the wave-guide designed with the triangular structure in the optical coupling region.Furthermore,in virtue of predominant ultraviolet transverse mag-netic(TM)modes,the solar blind optical signal is more conducive to lateral transmission along the waveguide inside the integrated chip.The integrated PDs demonstrate sufficient photosensitivity to the optical signal from the integrated LEDs.When the LEDs are operated at 100 mA current,the photo-to-dark current ratio(PDCR)of the integrated PD is about seven orders of magnitude.The responsivity,specific detectivity,and external quantum efficiency of the integrated self-driven PD are 74.89 A/W,4.22×1013 Jones,and 3.38×104%,respectively.The stable on-chip optical information transmission capability of the monolithically integrated photonic chips confirms the great potential for application in large-scale on-chip optical communication in the future.

Ultra-Low Linewidth Frequency Stabilized Integrated Lasers: A New Frontier in Integrated Photonics

With the advancement of photonic integration technology,ultra-low linewidth frequency-stabilized lasers have demonstrated significant potential in precision measurement,quantum communication,atomic clocks,etc.This review summarizes the latest developments in integrated photonics for achieving ultra-low linewidth lasers,particularly breakthroughs made by integrating Brillouin lasers.We discuss the design principles,manufacturing processes,performance characteristics,and potential value of these lasers in various applications.

Hybrid material integration in silicon photonic integrated circuits

Hybrid integration ofⅢ-Ⅴand ferroelectric materials is being broadly adopted to enhance functionalities in silicon photonic integrated circuits(PICs).Bonding and transfer printing have been the popular approaches for integration of III–V gain media with silicon PICs.Similar approaches are also being considered for ferroelectrics to enable larger RF modulation bandwidths,higher linearity,lower optical loss integrated optical modulators on chip.In this paper,we review existing integration strategies ofⅢ-Ⅴmaterials and present a route towards hybrid integration of bothⅢ-Ⅴand ferroelectrics on the same chip.We show that adiabatic transformation of the optical mode between hybrid ferroelectric and silicon sections enables efficient transfer of optical modal energies for maximum overlap of the optical mode with the ferroelectric media,similar to approaches adopted to maximize optical overlap with the gain section,thereby reducing lasing thresholds for hybridⅢ-Ⅴintegration with silicon PICs.Preliminary designs are presented to enable a foundry compatible hybrid integration route of diverse functionalities on silicon PICs.

Science Letters:The Moore’s Law for photonic integrated circuits

We formulate a “Moore’s law” for photonic integrated circuits (PICs) and their spatial integration density using two methods. One is decomposing the integrated photonics devices of diverse types into equivalent basic elements, which makes a comparison with the generic elements of electronic integrated circuits more meaningful. The other is making a complex compo- nent equivalent to a series of basic elements of the same functionality, which is used to calculate the integration density for func- tional components realized with different structures. The results serve as a benchmark of the evolution of PICs and we can con- clude that the density of integration measured in this way roughly increases by a factor of 2 per year. The prospects for a continued increase of spatial integration density are discussed.

High performance integrated photonic circuit based on inverse design method

The basic indexes of all-optical integrated photonic circuits include high-density integration,ultrafast response and ultralow energy consumption.Traditional methods mainly adopt conventional micro/nano-structures.The overall size of the circuit is large,usually reaches hundreds of microns.Besides,it is difficult to balance the ultrafast response and ultra-low energy consumption problem,and the crosstalk between two traditional devices is difficult to overcome.Here,we propose and experimentally demonstrate an approach based on inverse design method to realize a high-density,ultrafast and ultra-low energy consumption integrated photonic circuit with two all-optical switches controlling the input states of an all-optical XOR logic gate.The feature size of the whole circuit is only 2.5μm×7μm,and that of a single device is 2μm×2μm.The distance between two adjacent devices is as small as 1.5μm,within wavelength magnitude scale.Theoretical response time of the circuit is 150 fs,and the threshold energy is within 10 fJ/bit.We have also considered the crosstalk problem.The circuit also realizes a function of identifying two-digit logic signal results.Our work provides a new idea for the design of ultrafast,ultra-low energy consumption all-optical devices and the implementation of high-density photonic integrated circuits.

Photoic crystal nanobeam cavity devices for on-chip integrated silicon photonics

Integrated circuit(IC)industry has fully considered the fact that the Moore’s Law is slowing down or ending.Alternative solutions are highly and urgently desired to break the physical size limits in the More-than-Moore era.Integrated silicon photonics technology exhibits distinguished potential to achieve faster operation speed,less power dissipation,and lower cost in IC industry,because their COMS compatibility,fast response,and high monolithic integration capability.Particularly,compared with other on-chip resonators(e.g.microrings,2D photonic crystal cavities)silicon-on-insulator(SOI)-based photonic crystal nanobeam cavity(PCNC)has emerged as a promising platform for on-chip integration,due to their attractive properties of ultra-high Q/V,ultra-compact footprints and convenient integration with silicon bus-waveguides.In this paper,we present a comprehensive review on recent progress of on-chip PCNC devices for lasing,modulation,switching/filting and label-free sensing,etc.

Photonic integrated neuro-synaptic core for convolutional spiking neural network

Neuromorphic photonic computing has emerged as a competitive computing paradigm to overcome the bottlenecks of the von-Neumann architecture.Linear weighting and nonlinear spike activation are two fundamental functions of a photonic spiking neural network(PSNN).However,they are separately implemented with different photonic materials and devices,hindering the large-scale integration of PSNN.Here,we propose,fabricate and experimentally demonstrate a photonic neuro-synaptic chip enabling the simultaneous implementation of linear weighting and nonlinear spike activation based on a distributed feedback(DFB)laser with a saturable absorber(DFB-SA).A prototypical system is experimentally constructed to demonstrate the parallel weighted function and nonlinear spike activation.Furthermore,a fourchannel DFB-SA laser array is fabricated for realizing matrix convolution of a spiking convolutional neural network,achieving a recognition accuracy of 87%for the MNIST dataset.The fabricated neuro-synaptic chip offers a fundamental building block to construct the large-scale integrated PSNN chip.

An advanced Ⅲ-Ⅴ-on-silicon photonic integration platform

In many application scenarios,silicon(Si)photonics favors the integration of Ⅲ-Ⅴ gain material onto Si substrate to real-ize the on-chip light source.In addition to the current popular integration approaches of Ⅲ-Ⅴ-on-Si wafer bonding or dir-ect heteroepitaxial growth,a newly emerged promising solution of epitaxial regrowth on bonded substrate has attracted a lot of interests.High-quality Ⅲ-Ⅴ material realization and successful laser demonstrations show its great potential to be a promising integration platform for low-cost,high-integration density and highly scalable active-passive photonic integra-tion on Si.This paper reviews recent research work on this regrowth on bonded template platform including template de-velopments,regrown material characterizations and laser demonstrations.The potential advantages,opportunities and challenges of this approach are discussed.

Precision photonic integration for future large-scale photonic integrated circuits

Since the proposal of the concept of photonic integratedcircuits (PICs), tremendous progress has been made. In2005, Infinera Corp. rolled out the first commercial PICs, inwhich hundreds of optical functions were integrated onto asmall form factor chip for wavelength division multiplexing(WDM) systems[1], then a monolithically integrated 10 ×10 Gb/s WDM chip has been demonstrated, the channelnumber is ten[2]. Like ICs, large-scale PICs (LS-PICs) will besure to be pursued. However, there are still some generalchallenges associated with LS-PICs. The challenges for III–V(mainly InP) PICs is the semiconductor process, which is notmature for LS-PICs. Up to now, the channel number in commercialIII–V WDM PICs by Infinera is still about ten or less.For silicon photonics, the challenge is the silicon based lightsource. The low cost and mature solution for silicon lasers isstill unavailable and only 4 × 25 Gb/s PICs are deployed byIntel Corp. after 18-year R&D investment. Thus it is still unavailablefor practical LS-PICs in the present times.

The analysis of the integral gated mode single photon detector

This paper critically analyses and simulates the circuit configuration of the integral gated mode single photon detector which is proposed for eliminating the transient spikes problem of conventional gated mode single photon detector. The relationship between the values of the circuit elements and the effect of transient spikes cancellation has been obtained. With particular emphasis, the bias voltage of the avalanche photodiode and the output signal voltage of the integrator have been calculated. The obtained analysis results indicate that the output signal voltage of the integrator only relates to the total quantity of electricity of the avalanche charges by choosing the correct values of the circuit elements and integral time interval. These results can be used to optimize the performance of single photon detectors and provide guides for the design of single photon detectors.

Digital synthesis of programmable photonic integrated circuits

Programmable photonic waveguide meshes can be programmed into many different circuit topologies and thereby provide a variety of functions.Due to the complexity of the signal routing in a general mesh,a particular synthesis algorithm often only accounts for a specific function with a specific cell configuration.In this paper,we try to synthesize the programmable waveguide mesh to support multiple configurations with a more general digital signal processing platform.To show the feasibility of this technique,photonic waveguide meshes in different configurations(square,triangular and hexagonal meshes)are designed to realize optical signal interleaving with arbitrary duty cycles.The digital signal processing(DSP)approach offers an effective pathway for the establishment of a general design platform for the software-defined programmable photonic integrated circuits.The use of well-developed DSP techniques and algorithms establishes a link between optical and electrical signals and makes it convenient to realize the computer-aided design of optics–electronics hybrid systems.

Optimization of a Si-SiO2 Waveguide Coupler for Photonic Integrated Circuits

In this paper, we demonstrated a compact Si-SiO2 waveguide coupler with a footprint of only 2 μm × 3 μm by topology optimization in the communication wavelength. The transmission was increased from 30% to 100%, much higher than other methods. Besides, the optimized structure did not incorporate other dielectric materials, facilitating fabrications and applications.

Multifunctional interface between integrated photonics and free space

The combination of photonic integrated circuits and free-space metaoptics has the ability to untie technological knots that require advanced light manipulation due to their conjoined ability to achieve strong light-matter interaction via wave-guiding light over a long distance and shape them via large space-bandwidth product.Rapid prototyping of such a compound system requires component interchangeability.This represents a functional challenge in terms of fabrication and alignment of high-performance optical systems.Here,we report a flexible and interchangeable interface between a photonic integrated circuit and the free space using an array of low-loss metaoptics and demonstrate multifunctional beam shaping at a wavelength of 780 nm.We show that robust and high-fidelity operation of the designed optical functions can be achieved without prior precise characterization of the free-space input nor stringent alignment between the photonic integrated chip and the metaoptics chip.A diffraction limited spot of∼3μm for a hyperboloid metalens of numerical aperture 0.15 is achieved despite an input Gaussian elliptical deformation of up to 35%and misalignments of the components of up to 20μm.A holographic image with a peak signal-to-noise ratio of>10 dB is also reported.

Complete active–passive photonic integration based on GaN-on-silicon platform

Suitable optoelectronic integration platforms enable the realization of numerous application systems at the chip scale and are highly anticipated in the rapidly growing market.We report a GaN-on-silicon-based photonic integration platform and demonstrate a photonic integrated chip comprising a light source,modulator,photodiode(PD),waveguide,and Y-branch splitter based on this platform.The light source,modulator,and PD adopt the same multiple quantum wells(MQWs)diode structure without encountering incompatibility problems faced in other photonic integration approaches.The waveguide-structure MQW electro-absorption modulator has obvious indirect light modulation capability,and its absorption coefficient changes with the applied bias voltage.The results successfully validate the data transmission and processing using near-ultraviolet light with peak emission wavelength of 386 nm.The proposed complete active–passive approach that has simple fabrication and low cost provides new prospects for next-generation photonic integration.

An inversely designed integrated spectrometer with reconfigurable performance and ultra-low power consumption

Despite the pressing demand for integrated spectrometers,a solution that deliver high-performance while being practically operated is still missing.Furthermore,current integrated spectrometers lack reconfigurability in their performance,which is highly desirable for dynamic working scenarios.This study presents a viable solution by demonstrating a userfriendly,reconfigurable spectrometer on silicon.At the core of this innovative spectrometer is a programmable photonic circuit capable of exhibiting diverse spectral responses,which can be significantly adjusted using on-chip phase shifters.The distinguishing feature of our spectrometer lies in its inverse design approach,facilitating effortless control and efficient manipulation of the programmable circuit.By eliminating the need for intricate configuration,our design reduces power consumption and mitigates control complexity.Additionally,our reconfigurable spectrometer offers two distinct operating conditions.In the Ultra-High-Performance mode,it is activated by multiple phase-shifters and achieves exceptional spectral resolution in the picometer scale while maintaining broad bandwidth.On the other hand,the Ease-of-Use mode further simplifies the control logic and reduces power consumption by actuating a single-phase shifter.Although this mode provides a slightly degraded spectral resolution of approximately 0.3 nm,it prioritizes ease of use and is wellsuited for applications where ultra-fine spectral reconstruction is not a primary requirement.

High-intensity spatial-mode steerable frequency up-converter toward on-chip integration

Integrated photonic devices are essential for on-chip optical communication,optical-electronic systems,and quantum information sciences.To develop a high-fidelity interface between photonics in various frequency domains without disturbing their quantum properties,nonlinear frequency conversion,typically steered with the quadratic(χ2)process,should be considered.Furthermore,another degree of freedom in steering the spatial modes during theχ2 process,with unprecedent mode intensity is proposed here by modulating the lithium niobate(LN)waveguide-based inter-mode quasi-phasematching conditions with both temperature and wavelength parameters.Under high incident light intensities(25 and 27.8 dBm for the pump and the signal lights,respectively),mode conversion at the sum-frequency wavelength with sufficient high output power(−7–8 dBm)among the TM01,TM10,and TM00 modes is realized automatically with characterized broad temperature(ΔT≥8°C)and wavelength windows(Δλ≥1 nm),avoiding the previous efforts in carefully preparing the signal or pump modes.The results prove that high-intensity spatial modes can be prepared at arbitrary transparent wavelength of theχ2 media toward on-chip integration,which facilitates the development of chip-based communication and quantum information systems because spatial correlations can be applied to generate hyperentangled states and provide additional robustness in quantum error correction with the extended Hilbert space.

An Integratable Distributed Bragg Reflector Laser by Low-Energy Ion Implantation Induced Quantum Well Intermixing

An integratable distributed Bragg reflector laser is fabricated by low energy ion implantation induced quantum well intermixing.A 4 6nm quasi continuous wavelength tuning range is achieved by controlling phase current and grating current simultaneously,and side mode suppression ratio maintains over 30dB throughout the tuning range except a few mode jump points.

A 2×3 Photonic Switch in SiGe for 1.55μm Operation

A silicon-based photonic switch is proposed and simulated based on the multimode interference （MMI） principle and the free-carrier plasma dispersion effect in silicon-germanium. The proposed switch, designed for 1.55μm window operation,is useful for DWDM optical networks. The switch consists of two input single-mode ridge waveguide ports,a MMI section, and three output single-mode ridge waveguide ports. In the MMI section, two index-modulation regions are placed to divert input optical signals from the two input ports to each of the three output ports. Switching characteristics are demonstrated theoretically by a beam propagation method for 1.55μm operation. The simulated results show that the insertion loss of the switch is less than 1.43dB, and the crosstalk is between - 18 and - 32.8dB.

Recent advances of heterogeneously integrated Ⅲ–Ⅴ laser on Si

Due to the indirect bandgap nature,the widely used silicon CMOS is very inefficient at light emitting.The integration of silicon lasers is deemed as the‘Mount Everest’for the full take-up of Si photonics.The major challenge has been the materials dissimilarity caused impaired device performance.We present a brief overview of the recent advances of integratedⅢ-Ⅴlaser on Si.We will then focus on the heterogeneous direct/adhesive bonding enabling methods and associated light coupling structures.A selected review of recent representative novel heterogeneously integrated Si lasers for emerging applications like spectroscopy,sensing,metrology and microwave photonics will be presented,including DFB laser array,ultra-dense comb lasers and nanolasers.Finally,the challenges and opportunities of heterogeneous integration approach are discussed.