New research shows how light propagates in integrated circuits on chips

Phys.org  January 31, 2024 While the geometry of photonic integrated circuits can be characterized by existing means, their optimal and accurate performance requires detailed characterization of the light propagating within them. Researchers in Israel demonstrated the direct visualization of the light as it travels inside photonic integrated circuits. They used the natural nonlinear optical properties of silicon to directly map the electric field of the waves guided inside the integrated circuits, characterized waveguides and multimode splitters while extracting various parameters of the device. According to the researchers their work may be crucial component for the characterization of photonic circuitry, design […]

A first-of-its-kind chip features both a laser and waveguide to create a photonic integrated circuit

Phys.org  August 9, 2023 To replace bulk optics and fibres in high-precision and highly coherent applications, ultralow-noise laser sources integrated with other photonic components in a compact and robustly aligned on a single chip are preferred. However, there are two major issues preventing the realization of such photonic integrated circuits: the high phase noise of semiconductor lasers and the difficulty of integrating optical isolators directly on-chip. An international team of researchers (USA – UC Santa Barbara, Caltech, industry, Egypt) leveraged three-dimensional integration that resulted in ultralow-noise lasers with isolator-free operation for silicon photonics. Through multiple monolithic and heterogeneous processing sequences, […]

Scientists develop a broadband quantum-dot frequency-modulated comb laser

Phys.org  July 27, 2023 The formation of a broadband optical frequency comb relies on careful engineering of the group velocity dispersion (GVD) of the waveguide, which is challenging for platforms where the GVD is mainly determined by the material. An international team of researchers (USA – UC Santa Barbara, Egypt) has generated a 60 GHz quantum-dot (QD) mode-locked laser in which both the amplitude-modulated (AM) and the frequency-modulated (FM) comb could be generated independently. The high four-wave-modulated (FWM) efficiency of –5 dB allowed the QD laser to generate FM comb efficiently. They demonstrated that the Kerr nonlinearity could be practically engineered to […]