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, […]
Tag Archives: Silicon photonics
Team develops silicon photonic MEMS compatible with semiconductor manufacturing
Phys.org March 22, 2023 Silicon’s relatively weak electro-optic effects result in modulators with a significant footprint and thermo-optic tuning devices that require high power consumption, which are substantial impediments for very large-scale integration in silicon photonics. An international team of researchers (Switzerland, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland) has introduced a silicon photonic MEMS platform consisting of high-performance nano-opto-electromechanical devices fully integrated alongside standard silicon photonics foundry components, with wafer-level sealing for long-term reliability, flip-chip bonding to redistribution interposers, and fibre-array attachment for high port count optical and electrical interfacing. Their experimental demonstration of fundamental silicon photonic MEMS circuit elements, including power couplers, […]
Researchers find the missing photonic link to enable an all-silicon quantum internet
Phys.org July 13, 2022 The global quantum internet will require long-lived, telecommunications-band photon–matter interfaces manufactured at scale. Preliminary quantum networks based on photon–matter interfaces that meet a subset of these demands are encouraging efforts to identify new high-performance alternatives. Silicon is an ideal host for commercial-scale solid-state quantum technologies. It is already an advanced platform within the global integrated photonics and microelectronics industries, as well as host to record-setting long-lived spin qubits. Despite the overwhelming potential of the silicon quantum platform, the optical detection of individually addressable photon–spin interfaces in silicon have remained elusive. In their work researchers in Canada […]