Optical isolators are an important building block in photonic computation and communication. In traditional optics, isolators are realized with magneto-optical garnets. However, it remains challenging to incorporate such materials on an integrated platform because of the difficulty in material growth and bulky device footprint. Here, we propose an ultracompact integrated isolator by exploiting graphene's magneto-optical property on a silicon-on-insulator platform. The photonic nonreciprocity is achieved because the cyclotrons in graphene experiencing different optical spin exhibit different response to counterpropagating light. Taking advantage of cavity resonance effects, we have numerically optimized a device design, which shows excellent isolation performance with the extinction ratio over 45 dB and the insertion loss around 12 dB at a wavelength near 1.55 um. Featuring graphene's CMOS compatibility and substantially reduced device footprint, our proposal sheds light to monolithic integration of nonreciprocal photonic devices.
Wang et al. [1] demonstrated different power transmission coefficients for forward and backward propagation in simulation and experiment. From such a demonstration, the central claim of their paper is that "the spatial inversion symmetry breaking diode can construct an optical isolator in no conflict with any reciprocal principle". Their claim contradicts the Lorentz reciprocity theorem, from which it is well known that one cannot construct an isolator this way.
We create a non-magnetic CMOS-compatible optical isolator on a silicon chip. The isolator is based on indirect interband photonic transition, induced by electrically-driven dynamic refractive index modulation. We demonstrate an electrically-induced non-reciprocity: the transmission coefficients between two single-mode waveguides become dependent on the propagation directions only in the presence of the electrical drive. The contrast ratio between forward and backward directions exceeds 30dB in simulations. We experimentally observe a strong contrast (up to 3 dB) limited only by our electrical …
Integrated optical isolators have been a longstanding challenge for photonic integrated circuits (PIC). An ideal integrated optical isolator for PIC should be made by a monolithic process, have a small footprint, exhibit broadband and polarization-diverse operation, and be compatible with multiple materials platforms. Despite significant progress, the optical isolators reported so far do not meet all these requirements. In this article we present monolithically integrated broadband magneto-optical isolators on silicon and silicon nitride (SiN) platforms operating for both TE and TM modes with …
An InAs-on-InP quantum dash buried heterostructure laser and silicon chip optimized for mutual integration by direct facet-to-facet coupling have achieved -1.2 dB coupling efficiency, with coupled laser RIN of -150 dB/Hz and 152 kHz linewidth.
Optical non-reciprocity, which breaks the symmetry between forward and backward propagating optical waves, has become vital in photonic systems and enables many key devices, such as optical isolators, circulators and optical routers. Most conventional optical isolators involve magneto-optic materials, but devices based on optical nonlinearities, optomechanically induced transparency and stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) have also been demonstrated. So far, however, they have only been implemented for linearly or randomly polarized LP01-like fundamental modes. Here we report a light-driven …
Optical isolators and circulators are indispensable for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). Despite of significant progress in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platforms, integrated optical isolators and circulators have been rarely reported on silicon nitride (SiN) platforms. In this paper, we report monolithic integration of magneto-optical (MO) isolators on SiN platforms with record high performances based on standard silicon photonics foundry process and magneto-optical thin film deposition. We successfully grow high quality MO garnet thin films on SiN with large Faraday rotation up to -5900 de…
We design sub-wavelength high-performing non-reciprocal optical devices using recently discovered magnetic Weyl semimetals. These passive bulk topological materials exhibit anomalous Hall effect which results in magnetooptical effects that are orders of magnitude higher than those in conventional materials, without the need of any external magnetic bias. We design two optical isolators of both Faraday and Voigt geometries. These isolators have dimensions that are reduced by three orders of magnitude compared to conventional magneto-optical configurations. Our results indicate that the magnetic…
We demonstrate strong optical nonreciprocity in microring add-drop filters with asymmetric input and output coupling coefficients. Up to 18dB isolation was achieved with a silicon-on-insulator high-Q microring of 5 micrometer radius.
In the recent article by Feng et al. [Science 333, 729-733 (2011)] a system is proposed with a periodic spatial modulation of refractive index and absorption. It is claimed that this system is nonreciprocal and can be used as an optical isolator. The authors use an unconventional definition of reciprocity and thus make wrong conclusions on the applicability of the described phenomena for optical isolators. (Submitted to Science on October 7, 2011)
Optical isolator remains one of the main missing elements for photonic integrated circuits despite several decades of research. The best solutions up to now are based on transverse magneto-optical effect using either narrow-band resonators or high-gyrotropy magneto-optical materials with difficult integration on usual photonic platforms. We propose in this paper a radically new concept which enables performing broad-band non-reciprocal transmission even in the case of low-gyrotropy material. The principle explores the separation of back and forth light paths, due to the magneto-biplasmonic eff…
While photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are being widely used in applications such as telecommunications and datacenter interconnects, PICs capable of replacing bulk optics and fibers in high-precision, highly-coherent applications will require ultra-low-noise laser sources to be integrated with other photonic components in a compact and robustly aligned format -- that is, on a single chip. Such PICs could offer superior scalability for complex functionalities and volume production, as well as improved stability and reliability over time. However, there are two major issues preventing the re…
Integrated photonics has enabled signal synthesis, modulation and conversion using photonic integrated circuits (PIC). Many materials have been developed, among which silicon nitride (Si$_3$N$_4$) has emerged as a leading platform particularly for nonlinear photonics. Low-loss Si$_3$N$_4$ PIC has been widely used for frequency comb generation, narrow-linewidth lasers, microwave photonics, photonic computing networks, and even surface-electrode ion traps. Yet, among all demonstrated functionalities for Si$_3$N$_4$ integrated photonics, optical non-reciprocal devices, such as isolators and circu…
Wafer-scale monolithic integration of Ce:YIG films and magneto-optical isolators on silicon
National Engineering Research Centre of Electromagnetic Radiation Control Materials, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China（电磁辐射控制材料国家工程研究中心，电子科技大学）；Key Laboratory of Multi-spectral Absorbing Materials and Structures of Ministry of Education, University of Electronic Science and Technology of China（多光谱吸收材料与结构教育部重点实验室，电子科技大学）；Institute of Optics and Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences（中国科学院光电技术研究所）；HK Institute of Quantum Science and Technology, University of Hong Kong（香港量子科学研究所，香港大学）
Fiber and bulk-optical isolators are widely used to stabilize laser cavities by preventing unwanted feedback. However, their integrated counterparts have been slow to be adopted. While several strategies for on-chip optical isolation have been realized, these rely on either integration of magneto-optic materials or high frequency modulation with acousto-optic or electro-optic modulators. Here, we demonstrate an integrated approach for passively isolating a continuous wave laser using the intrinsically non-reciprocal Kerr nonlinearity in ring resonators. Using silicon nitride as a model platfor…
Nonreciprocal components, such as isolators and circulators, are crucial components for photonic systems. In this article we review theoretical and experimental progress towards developing nonreciprocal photonic devices based on dynamic modulation. In particular, we focus on approaches that operate at optical wavelengths and device architectures that have the potential for chip-scale integration. We first discuss the requirements for constructing an isolator or circulator using dynamic modulation. We review a number of different isolator and circulator architectures, including waveguide and re…
In this work we propose and theoretically characterize optical isolators consisting of an all-dielectric and non-magnetic resonator featuring an intensity-dependent refractive index and a strong coherent field propagating in a single direction. Such devices can be straightforwardly realized in state-of-the-art integrated photonics platforms. The mechanism underlying optical isolation is based on the breaking of optical reciprocity induced by the asymmetric action of four-wave mixing processes coupling a strong propagating pump field with co-propagating signal/idler modes but not with reverse-p…
Strong coupling enables a diverse set of applications that include optical memories, non-magnetic isolators, photonic state manipulation, and signal processing. To date, strong coupling in integrated platforms has been realized using narrow-linewidth high-Q optical resonators. In contrast, here we demonstrate wideband strong coupling between two photonic bands. The indirect interband photonic transition is controlled by electrically driving phonons in a linear silicon waveguide. Under large acoustic drive, the system features a Rabi-like energy exchange between two waveguide modes, demonstrati…
Non-reciprocal devices, such as circulators and isolators, are indispensable components in classical and quantum information processing in an integrated photonic circuit. Aside from those applications, the non-reciprocal phase shift is of fundamental interest for exploring exotic topological photonics, such as the realization of chiral edge states and topological protection. However, incorporating low optical-loss magnetic materials into a photonic chip is technically challenging. In this study, we experimentally demonstrate non-magnetic non-reciprocity using optomechanical interactions in a w…
Non-reciprocal photonic devices are essential components of classical optical information processing. It is interesting and important to investigate their feasibility in the quantum world. In this work, the quantum properties of an on-chip silicon nitride (SiN)-based magneto-optical (MO) isolator were studied using a single-photon non-reciprocal dynamical transmission experiment. The measured isolation ratio for single photons achieved was 12.33 dB, which proved the functionality of our on-chip isolator. The quantum coherence of the passing single photons was further verified using high-visibi…
Non-reciprocal optical components such as isolators and circulators are crucial for preventing catastrophic back-reflection and controlling optical crosstalk in photonic systems. While non-reciprocal devices based on Brillouin intermodal transitions have been experimentally demonstrated in chip-scale platforms, harnessing such interactions has required a suspended waveguide structure, which is challenging to fabricate and is potentially less robust than a non-suspended structure, thereby limiting the design flexibility. In this paper, we numerically investigate the performance of a Brillouin-b…
On-chip optical nonreciprocal devices are vital components for integrated photonic systems and scalable quantum information processing. Nonlinear optical isolators and circulators have attracted considerable attention because of their fundamental interest and their important advantages in integrated photonic circuits. However, optical nonreciprocal devices based on Kerr or Kerr-like nonlinearity are subject to dynamical reciprocity when the forward and backward signals coexist simultaneously in a nonlinear system. Here, we theoretically propose a method for realizing on-chip nonlinear isolator…
We report on the fabrication and characterization of photonic-based nanothermometers, a silicon photonic Bragg grating and photonic crystal cavity. When cladded with silicon dioxide layer the sensors have at least eight times better sensitivity compared to the sensitivity of conventional fiber Bragg grating sensors. We demonstrate that these photonic thermometers are a viable temperature sensing solution.
Optical isolators are indispensible components in nearly all photonic systems as they help ensure unidirectionality and provide crucial protection from undesirable reflections. While commercial isolators are exclusively built on magneto-optic (MO) principles they are not readily implemented within photonic integrated circuits due to the need for specialized materials. Importantly, the MO effect is generally weak, especially at shorter wavelengths. These challenges as a whole have motivated extensive research on non-MO alternatives. To date, however, no alternative technology has managed to sim…
Optical isolators, while commonplace in bulk- and fiber-optic systems, remain a key missing component in integrated photonic systems. Isolation using magneto-optic effects has been difficult to implement due to fabrication restraints, motivating use of other non-reciprocal effects such as temporal modulation. We demonstrate a non-reciprocal modulator comprising a pair of microring modulators and a microring phase shifter in an active silicon photonic process which, in combination with standard frequency filters, facilitates isolation. Isolation up to 13 dB is measured with a 3 dB bandwidth of …
The Luneburg lens is an aberration-free lens that focuses light from all directions equally well. We fabricated and tested a Luneburg lens in silicon photonics. Our technique is sufficiently versatile for making perfect imaging devices on silicon platforms.
We report systematic studies of plasmonic and photonic guiding modes in large-area chemical-vapor-deposition-grown graphene on nanostructured silicon substrates. Light interaction in graphene with substrate photonic crystals can be classified into four distinct regimes depending on the photonic crystal lattice constant and the various modal wavelengths (i.e. plasmonic, photonic and free-space). By optimizing the design of the substrate, these resonant modes can magnify the graphene absorption in infrared wavelength, for efficient modulators, filters, sensors and photodetectors on silicon photo…
The majority of silicon photonics is built on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafers while the majority of electronics, including CPUs and memory, are built on bulk silicon wafers, limiting broader acceptance of silicon photonics. This discrepancy is a result of silicon photonics's requirement for a single-crystalline silicon (c-Si) layer and a thick undercladding for optical guiding that bulk silicon wafers to not provide. While the undercladding problem can be partially addressed by substrate removal techniques, the complexity of co-integrating photonics with state-of-the-art transistors and real…
Optical computing accelerators may help alleviate bandwidth and power consumption bottlenecks in electronics. We show an approach to implementing logarithmic-type analog co-processors in silicon photonics and use it to perform the exponentiation operation. The function is realized by exploiting nonlinear-absorption-enhanced Raman amplification saturation in a silicon waveguide.
On-chip optical isolators play a key role in optical communications and computing based on silicon integrated photonic structures. Recently there have raised great attentions and hot controversies upon isolation of light via linear and passive photonic structures. Here we analyze the optical isolation properties of a silicon photonic crystal slab heterojunction diode by comparing the forward transmissivity and round-trip reflectivity of in-plane infrared light across the structure. The round-trip reflectivity is much smaller than the forward transmissivity, justifying good isolation. The consi…
We demonstrate the first active optical isolator and circulator implemented in a linear and reciprocal material platform using commercial Mach-Zehnder modulators. In a proof-of-principle experiment based on single-mode polarization-maintaining fibers, we achieve more than 12.5 dB isolation over an unprecedented 8.7 THz bandwidth at telecommunication wavelengths, with only 9.1 dB total insertion loss. Our architecture provides a practical answer to the challenge of non-reciprocal light routing in photonic integrated circuits.
We propose a scheme to realize controlled phase gate between two single photons through a single quantum dot in slow-light silicon photonic crystal waveguide. Enhanced Purcell factor and beta factor lead to high gate fidelity over broadband frequencies compared to cavity-assisted system. The excellent physical integration of this silicon photonic crystal waveguide system provides tremendous potential for large-scale quantum information processing.
We propose the use of silicon graphene waveguides to implement a tunable broadband microwave photonics phase shifte based on integrated ring cavities. Numerical computation results show the feasibility for broadband operation over 40 GHz bandwidth and full 360 degree radiofrequency phase-shift with a modest voltage excursion of 0.12 volt.
One dimensional nanobeam photonic crystal cavities are fabricated in silicon dioxide with silicon nanocrystals. Quality factors of over 9 x 10^3 are found in experiment, matching theoretical predictions, with mode volumes of 1.5(lambda/n)^3 . Photoluminescence from the cavity modes is observed in the visible wavelength range 600-820 nm. Studies of the lossy characteristics of the cavities are conducted at varying temperatures and pump powers. Free carrier absorption effects are found to be significant at pump powers as low as a few hundred nanowatts.
We report the observations of spontaneous Raman scattering in silicon photonic crystal waveguides. Continuous-wave measurements of Stokes emission for both wavelength and power dependence is reported in single line-defect waveguides in hexagonal lattice photonic crystal silicon membranes. By utilizing the Bragg gap edge dispersion of the TM-like mode for pump enhancement and the TE-like fundamental mode-onset for Stokes enhancement, the Stokes emission was observed to increase by up to five times in the region of slow group velocity. The results show explicit nonlinear enhancement in a silicon…
We show that fluctuations of Raman amplified pulses, in the presence of a noisy pump, follow extreme value statistics, and provide mathematical insight into the origin of this perplexing behavior.
An effort was conducted to numerically determine, using the Nonlinear Schrodinger Split-Step Fourier method, if using cross phase modulation could cause temporal soliton pulse propagation in a silicon slow-light photonic crystal waveguide shorter than a millimeter. The simulations demonstrated that due to the higher powers and shorter scales of photonic crystals, two-photon absorption would cause an optical soliton pulse to be extremely dissipative. The model demonstrated, however, that by utilizing cross-phase modulation, it is possible to sustain a compressed soliton pulse within a silicon p…
We outline the design for a photonic crystal resonator made in a hybrid Silicon/Lithium Niobate material system. Using the index contrast between silicon and lithium niobate, it is possible to guide and confine photonic resonances in a thin film of silicon bonded on top of lithium niobate. Quality factors greater than $10^6$ at optical wavelength scale mode volumes are achievable. We show that patterning electrodes on such a system can yield an electro-optic coupling rate of 0.6 GHz/V (4 pm/V).
The spectra of silicon integrated waveguides are tailored to process analog computing (i.e.,differential and integral) in optical domain with huge bandwidth.With the theory of signal and system, we design some silicon integrated devices to implement photonic differentiator and optical differential equation solver. The basic principle is to tailor the spectra of silicon integrated waveguides to meet the requirements of analog computing circuits. These analog photonic integrated circuits are very promising in future computing systems with high speed, low cost, and compact size. We also plan to e…
Nonreciprocal light propagation is important in many applications, ranging from optical telecommunications to integrated photonics. A simple way to achieve optical nonreciprocity is to use the nonlinear interaction between counterpropagating light in a Kerr medium. Within a ring resonator, this leads to spontaneous symmetry breaking, with the result that light of a given frequency can circulate in one direction, but not in both directions simultaneously. In this work, we demonstrate that this effect can be used to realize optical isolators and circulators based on a single ultra- high-Q micror…
Optical isolation is a long pursued object with fundamental difficulty in integrated photonics. As a step towards this goal, we demonstrate the design, fabrication, and characterization of on-chip wavelength-scale optical diodes that are made from the heterojunction between two different silicon two-dimensional square-lattice photonic crystal slabs with directional bandgap mismatch and different mode transitions. The measured transmission spectra show considerable unidirectional transmission behavior, in good agreement with numerical simulations. The experimental realization of on-chip optical…
In this work we show theoretically that it is possible to design a large band gap in the infrared range using a one-dimensional Photonic Crystal heterostructure made of porous silicon. Stacking together multiple photonic crystal substructures of the same contrast index, but of different lattice periods, it is possible to broad the narrow forbidden band gap that can be reached by the low contrast index of the porous silicon multilayers. The main idea in this work is that we can construct a Giant Photonic Band Gap -as large as desired- by combining a tandem of photonic crystals substructures by …
We demonstrate the first functional signal processing device based on stimulated Brillouin scattering in a silicon nanowire. We use only 1 dB of on-chip SBS gain to create an RF photonic notch filter with 48 dB of suppression, 98 MHz linewidth, and 6 GHz frequency tuning. This device has potential applications in on-chip microwave signal processing and establishes the foundation for the first CMOS-compatible high performance RF photonic filter.
We demonstrate a fully coherent supercontinuum spectrum spanning 500 nm from a silicon-on-insulator photonic wire waveguide pumped at 1575 nm wavelength. An excellent agreement with numerical simulations is reported. The simulations also show that a high level of two-photon absorption can essentially enforce the coherence of the spectral broadening process irrespective of the pump pulse duration.
We experimentally demonstrate phase sensitive amplification (PSA) in a silicon photonic crystal waveguide based on pump-degenerate four-wave mixing. An 11 dB phase extinction ratio is obtained in a record compact 196 μm nanophotonic device due to broadband slow-light, in spite of the presence of two-photon absorption and free-carriers. Numerical calculations show good agreement with the experimental results.
Recently, a silicon micromachining method to produce tetrahedral silicon particles was discovered. In this report we determine, using band structure calculations, the optical properties of diamond-lattice photonic crystals when assembled from such particles. We show that crystal structures built from silicon tetrahedra are expected to display small stop gaps. Wide photonic band gaps appear when truncated tetrahedral particles are used to build the photonic crystals. With truncated tetrahedral particles a band gap with a width of 23.6% can be achieved, which is more than twice as wide compared …
One dimensional nano-beam photonic crystal cavities fabricated in silicon dioxide are considered in both simulation and experiment. Quality factors of over 10^4 are found via simulation, while quality factors of over 5*10^3 are found in experiment, for cavities with mode volumes of 2.0 cubic wavelengths (in oxide) and in the visible wavelength range (600-716nm). The dependences of the cavity quality factor and mode volume for different design parameters are also considered.
We have studied the reflectivity of CMOS-compatible three-dimensional silicon inverse woodpile photonic crystals at near-infrared frequencies. Polarization-resolved reflectivity spectra were obtained from two orthogonal crystal surfaces corresponding to 1.88 pi sr solid angle. The spectra reveal broad peaks with high reflectivity up to 67 % that are independent of the spatial position on the crystals. The spectrally overlapping reflectivity peaks for all directions and polarizations form the signature of a broad photonic band gap with a relative bandwidth up to 16 %. This signature is supporte…
