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Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) with rapid prototyping and reprogramming capabilities promise revolutionary impacts on a plethora of photonic technologies. We report direct-write and rewritable photonic circuits on a low-loss phase-change material (PCM) thin film. Complete end-to-end PICs are directly laser-written in one step without additional fabrication processes, and any part of the circuit can be erased and rewritten, facilitating rapid design modification. We demonstrate the versatility of this technique for diverse applications, including an optical interconnect fabric for reconfigurable networking, a photonic crossbar array for optical computing, and a tunable optical filter for optical signal processing. By combining the programmability of the direct laser writing technique with PCM, our technique unlocks opportunities for programmable photonic networking, computing, and signal processing. Moreover, the rewritable photonic circuits enable rapid prototyping and testing in a convenient and cost-efficient manner, eliminate the need for nanofabrication facilities, and thus promote the proliferation of photonics research and education to a broader community.
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This content will become publicly available on February 4, 2026
Integrated photonic programmable random matrix generator with minimal active components
Abstract Random matrices are fundamental in photonic computing because of their ability to model and enhance complex light interactions and signal processing capabilities. In manipulating classical light, random operations are utilized for random projections and dimensionality reduction, which are important for analog signal processing, computing, and imaging. In quantum information processing, random unitary operations are essential to boson sampling algorithms for multiphoton states in linear photonic circuits. Random operations are typically realized in photonic circuits through fixed disordered structures or through large meshes of interferometers with reconfigurable phase shifters, requiring a large number of active components. In this article, we introduce a compact photonic circuit for generating random matrices by utilizing programmable phase modulation layers interlaced with a fixed mixing operator. We show that using only two random phase layers is sufficient for producing output optical signals with a white-noise profile, even for highly sparse input optical signals. We experimentally demonstrate these results using a silicon-based photonic circuit with tunable thermal phase shifters and waveguide lattices as mixing layers. The proposed circuit offers a practical method for generating random matrices for photonic information processing and for applications in data encryption.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2211646
- PAR ID:
- 10618829
- Publisher / Repository:
- npj Nanophotonics
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- npj Nanophotonics
- Volume:
- 2
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2948-216X
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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