The spatially confined evanescent microwave photonics have been proved to be highly desirable in broad practical scenarios ranging from robust information communications to efficient quantum interactions. However, the feasible applications of these photonics modes are limited due to the lack of fundamental understandings and feasible directional coupling approaches at sub-wavelengths. Here, we experimentally demonstrate the efficient near-field photonic routing achieved in waveguides composed of two kinds of single-negative metamaterials. Without mimicking the polarization features, we propose all-electric near-field metasource in subwavelength scale and exemplify its near-field functions like Janus, Huygens and spin sources, corresponding to time-reversal, parity-time and parity symmetries of its inner degree of freedom. Our work furthers the understandings about optical near-field symmetry and feasible engineering approaches of directional couplings, which would pave the way for promising integrated mircrowave photonics devices.
We design, fabricate and characterize integrated photonic routing manifolds with 10 inputs and 100 outputs using two vertically integrated planes of silicon nitride waveguides. We analyze manifolds via top-view camera imaging. This measurement technique allows the rapid acquisition of hundreds of precise transmission measurements. We demonstrate manifolds with uniform and Gaussian power distribution patterns with mean power output errors (averaged over 10 sets of 10 inputs) of 0.7 and 0.9 dB, respectively, establishing this as a viable architecture for precision light distribution on-chip. We …
Nonreciprocal devices such as isolators and circulators are key enabling technologies for communication systems, both at microwave and optical frequencies. While nonreciprocal devices based on magnetic effects are available for free-space and fibre-optic communication systems, their on-chip integration has been challenging, primarily due to the concomitant high insertion loss, weak magneto-optical effects, and material incompatibility. We show that Kerr nonlinear resonators can be used to achieve all-passive, low-loss, bias-free, broadband nonreciprocal transmission and routing for application…
The valleys of two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) offer a new degree of freedom for information processing. To take advantage of this valley degree of freedom, on one hand, it is feasible to control valleys by utilizing different external stimuli like optical and electric fields. On the other hand, nanostructures are also used to separate the valleys by near field coupling. However, for both above methods, either required low-temperature environment or low degree of coherence properties limit their further applications. Here, we demonstrate all-dielectric photonic crystal…
Topological protection in photonics offers new prospects for guiding and manipulating classical and quantum information. The mechanism of spin-orbit coupling promises the emergence of edge states that are helical; exhibiting unidirectional propagation that is topologically protected against back-scattering. We directly observe the topological states of a photonic analogue of electronic materials exhibiting the quantum Spin Hall effect, living at the interface between two silicon photonic crystals with different topological order. Through the far-field radiation that is inherent to the states' …
Interlayer excitons in two dimensional semiconductor heterostructures show suppressed electron-hole overlap resulting in longer radiative lifetimes as compared to intralyer excitons. Such tightly bound interlayer excitons are relevant for important optoelectronic applications including light storage and quantum communication. Their optical accessibility is, however, limited due to their out-of-plane transition dipole moment. In this work, we design a CMOS compatible photonic integrated chip platform for enhanced near field coupling of these interlayer excitons with the whispering gallery modes…
Photonic spiking reinforcement learning for intelligent routing
State Key Laboratory of Integrated Service Networks, Xidian University（西安电子科技大学综合业务网理论及关键技术国家重点实验室）；School of Communication and Information Engineering, Xi’an University of Posts and Telecommunications（西安邮电大学通信与信息工程学院）
Hybrid Integration of Quantum Dot Single Photon Sources with Lithium Tantalate Photonics for On Chip Routing
National University of Defense Technology（国防科技大学）；Zhejiang University（浙江大学）；Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen)（哈尔滨工业大学（深圳））；Sun Yat-sen University（中山大学）
Valley pseudospin, a new degree of freedom in photonic lattices, provides an intriguing way to manipulate photons and enhance the robustness of optical networks. Here we experimentally demonstrated topological waveguiding, refracting, resonating, and routing of valley-polarized photons in integrated circuits. Specifically, we show that at the domain wall between photonic crystals of different topological valley phases, there exists a topologically protected valley kink state that is backscattering-free at sharp bends and terminals. We further harnessed these valley kink states for constructing…
Photonic data routing in optical networks overcomes the limitations of electronic routers with respect to data rate, latency, and energy consumption while suffering from dynamic power consumption, non-simultaneous usage of multiple wavelength channels, and large footprints. Here we show the first hybrid photonic-plasmonic, non-blocking, broadband 5x5 router. The compact footprint (<250 μm2) enables high operation speed (480 GHz) requiring only 82 fJ/bit (1.9 dB) of averaged energy consumption (routing loss). The router supports multi-wavelength up to 206 nm in the telecom band. Having a data-c…
The merger between integrated photonics and quantum optics promises new opportunities within photonic quantum technology with the very significant progress on excellent photon-emitter interfaces and advanced optical circuits. A key missing functionality is rapid circuitry reconfigurability that ultimately does not introduce loss or emitter decoherence, and operating at a speed matching the photon generation and quantum memory storage time of the on-chip quantum emitter. This ambitious goal requires entirely new active quantum-photonic devices by extending the traditional approaches to reconfig…
Trapped ions are promising candidates for nodes of a scalable quantum network due to their long-lived qubit coherence times and high-fidelity single and two-qubit gates. Future quantum networks based on trapped ions will require a scalable way to route photons between different nodes. Photonic integrated circuits from fabrication foundries provide a compact solution to this problem. However, these circuits typically operate at telecommunication wavelengths which are incompatible with the strong dipole emissions of trapped ions. In this work, we demonstrate the routing of single photons from a …
The ability to perfectly guide surface electromagnetic waves around ultra-sharp corners without back-scattering and radiation is in great demand for various photonic and plasmonic applications. This is fundamentally difficult to realize because of the dramatic momentum mismatch and wave nature of radiation at the sharp corners. Here we experimentally demonstrate that a simple photonic structure, a periodic square array of metallic cylinders standing on a metal surface, can behaves as a surface-wave photonic crystal with complete photonic band gap to overcome this bottleneck simply. A line-defe…
Recent breakthroughs in solid-state photonic quantum technologies enable generating and detecting single photons with near-unity efficiency as required for a range of photonic quantum technologies. The lack of methods to simultaneously generate and control photons within the same chip, however, has formed a main obstacle to achieving efficient multi-qubit gates and to harness the advantages of chip-scale quantum photonics. Here we propose and demonstrate an integrated voltage-controlled phase shifter based on the electro-optic effect in suspended photonic waveguides with embedded quantum emitt…
Physical challenges at the device and interconnect level limit both network and computing energy efficiency. While photonics is being considered to address interconnect bottlenecks, optical routing is still limited by electronic circuitry, requiring substantial overhead for optical-electrical-optical conversion. Here we show a novel design of an integrated broadband photonic-plasmonic hybrid device termed MODetector featuring dual light modulation and detection function to act as an optical transceiver in the photonic network-on-chip. With over 10 dB extinction ratio and 0.8 dB insertion loss …
Topology-linked binary degrees of freedom of guided waves have been used to expand the channel capacity of and to ensure robust transmission through photonic waveguides. However, selectively exciting optical modes associated with the desired degree of freedom is challenging and typically requires spatially extended sources or filters. Both approaches are incompatible with the ultimate objective of developing compact mode-selective sources powered by single emitters. In addition, the implementation of highly desirable functionalities, such as controllable distribution of guided modes between mu…
Chiral quantum optics has attracted considerable interest in the field of quantum information science. Exploiting the spin-polarization properties of quantum emitters and engineering rational photonic nanostructures has made it possible to transform information from spin to path encoding. Here, compact chiral photonic circuits with deterministic circularly polarized chiral routing and beamsplitting are demonstrated using two laterally adjacent waveguides coupled with quantum dots. Chiral routing arises from the electromagnetic field chirality in waveguide, and beamsplitting is obtained via the…
Recently, guiding electromagnetic surface waves without sacrificing scattering losses through paths that have arbitrary shape bumps has gained a lot of interest due to its wealth of advantages in modern photonics and plasmonics devices. In this study, based on transformation optics (TO) methodology, a feasible approach to control the flow of surface plasmon plariton (SPPs) at metal-dielectric interfaces with arbitrary curvature is proposed. The obtained material becomes homogeneous and independent of the bump's geometry. That is, one constant material is required to route SPP waves without sca…
Semiconductor based photonic information technologies are rapidly being pushed to the quantum limit where non-classical states of light can be generated, manipulated and exploited in prototypical quantum optical circuits. Here, we report the on-chip generation of quantum light from individual, resonantly excited self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots, efficient routing over length scales $\geq 1$ mm via GaAs ridge waveguides and in-situ detection using evanescently coupled integrated NbN superconducting single photon detectors fabricated on the same chip. By temporally filtering the time-resolved …
Reconfigurable photonic devices capable of routing the flow of light enable flexible integrated-optic circuits that are not hard-wired but can be externally controlled. Analogous to free-space spatial light modulators, we demonstrate all-optical wavefront shaping in integrated silicon-on-insulator photonic devices by modifying the spatial refractive index profile of the device employing ultraviolet pulsed laser excitation. Applying appropriate excitation patterns grants us full control over the optical transfer function of telecommunication-wavelength light travelling through the device, thus …
Here we propose and demonstrate an all-optical wavelength-routing approach which uses a tuning mechanism based upon the optical gradient force in a specially-designed nano-optomechanical system. The resulting mechanically-compliant "spiderweb" resonantor realizes seamless wavelength routing over a range of 3000 times the intrinsic channel width, with a tuning efficiency of 309-GHz/mW, a switching time of less than 200-ns, and 100% channel-quality preservation over the entire tuning range. These results indicate the potential for radiation pressure actuated devices to be used in a variety of ph…
The prospect of quantum networks, in which quantum information is carried by single photons in photonic circuits, has long been the driving force behind the effort to achieve all-optical routing of single photons. Here we realize the most basic unit of such a photonic circuit: a single-photon activated switch, capable of routing a photon from any of its two inputs to any of its two outputs. Our device is based on a single 87Rb atom coupled to a fiber-coupled, chip-based microresonator, and is completely all-optical, requiring no other fields beside the in-fiber single-photon pulses. Nonclassic…
Dense waveguide arrays with half-wavelength-pitch, low-crosstalk, broadband, and flexible routing capability are essential for integrated photonics. However, achieving such performance is challenging due to the relatively weaker confinement of dielectric waveguides and the increased interactions among densely packed waveguides. Here, leveraging the artificial gauge field mechanism, we demonstrate half-wavelength-pitched dense waveguide arrays, consisting of 64 waveguides, in silicon with -30dB crosstalk suppression from 1480nm to 1550nm. The waveguide array features negligible insertion loss f…
Topological photonic systems offer light transport that is robust against defects and disorder, promising a new generation of chip-scale photonic devices and facilitating energy-efficient on-chip information routing and processing. However, present quasi one-dimensional designs, such as the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger (SSH) and Rice-Mele (RM) models, support only a limited number of nontrivial phases due to restrictions on dispersion band engineering. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a flexible topological photonic lattice on a silicon photonic platform that realizes multiple topologically nontriv…
We review the potential of Astrophotonics, a relatively young field at the interface between photonics and astronomical instrumentation, for spectro-interferometry. We review some fundamental aspects of photonic science that drove the emer- gence of astrophotonics, and highlight the achievements in observational astrophysics. We analyze the prospects for further technological development also considering the potential synergies with other fields of physics (e.g. non-linear optics in condensed matter physics). We also stress the central role of fiber optics in routing and transporting light, de…
We proposed an experimentally feasible scheme of nano-plamonic switch and quantum router via the single self-assembled InGaAs/GaAs semiconductor quantum dot (SQD) with a V type three-level energy structure located between two silver metallic waveguides. We studied theoretically transmission and transfer rates of single plasmons in such a multi-ports system via the real-space approach, where our results showed that single plasmons from the input port could be switchable and redirected by controlling parameters, such as the intensity of the classical field, the detunings, and the interaction bet…
High-Speed Non-Volatile Barium Titanate Field Programmable Photonic Gate Array
Photonics Research Labs, iTEAM Research Institute, Universitat Politècnica de València（巴伦西亚理工大学iTEAM研究所光子学实验室）；iPronics Programmable Photonics S.L.（iPronics可编程光子有限公司）；Lumiphase AG（Lumiphase股份公司）；University of West Attica（西阿提卡大学）；CEA-Leti（法国原子能与替代能源委员会LETI研究所）
Nonlocality is the missing design rule for topological photonics
Institute of Materials Science, Kiel University（基尔大学材料科学研究所）；Kiel Nano, Surface and Interface Science KiNSIS, Christian Albrechts University（克里斯蒂安·阿尔布雷希特大学基尔纳米、表面与界面科学KiNSIS）
Linear light processing functions (e.g., routing, splitting, filtering) are key functions requiring configuration to implement on a programmable photonic integrated circuit (PPIC). In recirculating waveguide meshes (which include loop-backs), this is usually done manually. Some previous results describe explorations to perform this task automatically, but their efficiency or applicability is still limited. In this paper, we propose an efficient method that can automatically realize configurations for many light processing functions on a square-mesh PPIC. At its heart is an automatic differenti…
Non-reciprocal devices, which allow the non-reciprocal signal routing, serve as the fundamental elements in photonic and microwave circuits and are crucial in both classical and quantum information processing. The radiation-pressure-induced coupling between light and mechanical motion in traveling wave resonators has been exploited to break the Lorentz reciprocity, realizing non-reciprocal devices without magnetic materials. Here, we experimentally demonstrate a reconfigurable nonreciprocal device with alternative functions of either a circulator or a directional amplifier via the optomechanic…
The spin-orbit interaction (SOI) of light has been intensively studied in nanophotonics because it enables sensitive control of photons' spin degree of freedom and thereby the trajectory of the photons, which is useful for applications such as signal encoding and routing. A recent study showed that the SOI of photons manifests in the presence of a gradient in the permittivity of the medium through which the photons propagate; this enhances the scattering of circularly polarized light and results in the photons propagating along twisted trajectories. Here we theoretically predict that, because …
We demonstrate the emission and routing of single photons along a semiconductor chip originating from carrier recombination in an actively positioned InAs quantum dot. Device scale arrays of quantum dots are formed by a two step regrowth process. We precisely locate the propagating region of a unidirectional photonic crystal waveguide with respect to the quantum dot nucleation site. Under pulsed optical excitation, the multiphoton emission probability from the exit of the waveguide is 12 \pm 5 % before any background correction. Our results are a major step towards the deterministic integratio…
Future quantum computation and networks require scalable monolithic circuits, which incorporate various advanced functionalities on a single physical substrate. Although substantial progress for various applications has already been demonstrated on different platforms, the range of diversified manipulation of photonic states on demand on a single chip has remained limited, especially dynamic time management. Here, we demonstrate an electro-optic device, including photon pair generation, propagation, electro-optical path routing, as well as a voltage-controllable time delay of up to ~ 12 ps on …
We report the routing of quantum light emitted by self-assembled InGaAs quantum dots (QDs) into the optical modes of a GaAs ridge waveguide and its efficient detection on-chip via evanescent coupling to NbN superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs). Individual QD light sources embedded within such integrated nano-photonic circuits are highly attractive for the realization of quantum photonic circuits for many applications in photonic information science. Here, we demonstrate that the waveguide coupled SNSPDs primarily detect QD luminescence with scattered photons from the excit…
