New technique to trap soundwaves and light on a chip in large-scale circuits

Phys.org  October 10, 2022 The filtering, amplifying, and processing of optical signals is essential in the development of new telecommunication techniques, quantum optics and sensors. One pathway to do this effectively is by using Brillouin scattering. However, Brillouin scattering (SBS) in the emerging silicon nitride (Si3N4) photonic integration platform is currently out of reach because of the lack of acoustic guidance. An international team of researchers (the Netherlands, Switzerland) demonstrated advanced control of backward SBS in multilayer Si3N4 waveguides. By optimizing the separation between two Si3N4 layers, they unlocked acoustic waveguiding in this platform, potentially leading up to 15× higher […]