An official website of the United States government
Robust, low-loss photonic packaging of on-chip nanophotonic circuits is a key enabling technology for the deployment of integrated photonics in a variety of classical and quantum technologies including optical communications and quantum communications, sensing, and transduction. To date, no process has been established that enables permanent, broadband, and cryogenically compatible coupling with sub-dB losses from optical fibers to nanophotonic circuits. Here, we report a technique for reproducibly generating a permanently packaged interface between a tapered optical fiber and nanophotonic devices on diamond with a record-low coupling loss <1 dB per facet at near-infrared wavelengths (∼730 nm) that remains stable from 300 K to 30 mK. We further demonstrate the compatibility of this technique with etched lithium niobate on insulator waveguides. The technique lifts performance limitations imposed by scattering as light transfers between photonic devices and optical fibers, paving the way for scalable integration of photonic technologies at both room and cryogenic temperatures.
more »
« less
This content will become publicly available on August 14, 2026
Perspectives of active Si photonics devices for data communication and optical sensing
Si photonics has made rapid progress in research and commercialization in the past two decades. While it started with electronic–photonic integration on Si to overcome the interconnect bottleneck in data communications, Si photonics has now greatly expanded into optical sensing, light detection and ranging (LiDAR), optical computing, and microwave/RF photonics applications. From an applied physics point of view, this perspective discusses novel materials and integration schemes of active Si photonics devices for a broad range of applications in data communications, spectrally extended complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) image sensing, as well as 3D imaging for LiDAR systems. We also present a brief outlook of future synergy between Si photonic integrated circuits and Si CMOS image sensors toward ultrahigh capacity optical I/O, ultrafast imaging systems, and ultrahigh sensitivity lab-on-chip molecular biosensing.
more »
« less
- PAR ID:
- 10629547
- Publisher / Repository:
- AIP
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Applied Physics
- Volume:
- 138
- Issue:
- 6
- ISSN:
- 0021-8979
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
More Like this
-
-
Abstract Reconfigurability of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) has become increasingly important due to the growing demands for electronic–photonic systems on a chip driven by emerging applications, including neuromorphic computing, quantum information, and microwave photonics. Success in these fields usually requires highly scalable photonic switching units as essential building blocks. Current photonic switches, however, mainly rely on materials with weak, volatile thermo‐optic or electro‐optic modulation effects, resulting in large footprints and high energy consumption. As a promising alternative, chalcogenide phase‐change materials (PCMs) exhibit strong optical modulation in a static, self‐holding fashion, but the scalability of present PCM‐integrated photonic applications is still limited by the poor optical or electrical actuation approaches. Here, with phase transitions actuated by in situ silicon PIN diode heaters, scalable nonvolatile electrically reconfigurable photonic switches using PCM‐clad silicon waveguides and microring resonators are demonstrated. As a result, intrinsically compact and energy‐efficient switching units operated with low driving voltages, near‐zero additional loss, and reversible switching with high endurance are obtained in a complementary metal‐oxide‐semiconductor (CMOS)‐compatible process. This work can potentially enable very large‐scale CMOS‐integrated programmable electronic–photonic systems such as optical neural networks and general‐purpose integrated photonic processors.more » « less
-
3D imaging is essential for the study and analysis of a wide variety of structures in numerous applications. Coherent photonic systems such as optical coherence tomography (OCT) and light detection and ranging (LiDAR) are state-of-the-art approaches, and their current implementation can operate in regimes that range from under a few millimeters to over more than a kilometer. We introduce a general method, which we call universal photonics tomography (UPT), for analyzing coherent tomography systems, in which conventional methods such as OCT and LiDAR may be viewed as special cases. We demonstrate a novel approach (to our knowledge) based on the use of phase modulation combined with multirate signal processing to collect positional information of objects beyond the Nyquist limits.more » « less
-
Abstract Silicon carbide (SiC)'s nonlinear optical properties and applications to quantum information have recently brought attention to its potential as an integrated photonics platform. However, despite its many excellent material properties, such as large thermal conductivity, wide transparency window, and strong optical nonlinearities, it is generally a difficult material for microfabrication. Here, it is shown that directly bonded silicon‐on‐silicon carbide can be a high‐performing hybrid photonics platform that does not require the need to form SiC membranes or directly pattern in SiC. The optimized bonding method yields defect‐free, uniform films with minimal oxide at the silicon–silicon–carbide interface. Ring resonators are patterned into the silicon layer with standard, complimentary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) compatible (Si) fabrication and measure room‐temperature, near‐infrared quality factors exceeding 105. The corresponding propagation loss is 5.7 dB cm−1. The process offers a wafer‐scalable pathway to the integration of SiC photonics into CMOS devices.more » « less
-
Abstract Microwave photonics uses light to carry and process microwave signals over a photonic link. However, light can instead be used as a stimulus to microwave devices that directly control microwave signals. Such optically controlled amplitude and phase-shift switches are investigated for use in reconfigurable microwave systems, but they suffer from large footprint, high optical power level required for switching, lack of scalability and complex integration requirements, restricting their implementation in practical microwave systems. Here, we report Monolithic Optically Reconfigurable Integrated Microwave Switches (MORIMSs) built on a CMOS compatible silicon photonic chip that addresses all of the stringent requirements. Our scalable micrometer-scale switches provide higher switching efficiency and require optical power orders of magnitude lower than the state-of-the-art. Also, it opens a new research direction on silicon photonic platforms integrating microwave circuitry. This work has important implications in reconfigurable microwave and millimeter wave devices for future communication networks.more » « less
