Mid-infrared absorption spectroscopy is a well-established technique for non-destructive quantitative molecular analysis. Waveguide-integrated sensors provide a particularly compact solution operating with reduced sample volumes while exhibiting exquisite molecular selectivity, sensitivity, and ultra-low limits of detection. Recent advances in mid-infrared technologies along with the integration of on-chip sources, detectors and microfluidics, have brought mid-infrared lab-on-chip systems closer to reality. A variety of material platforms has been proposed for the implementation of such systems. However, the lack of a consistent waveguide design approach renders a fair comparison between different alternatives - and a deliberate material selection - challenging, limiting the development of optimized on-chip spectroscopic devices. In the present study, a systematic waveguide design approach has been developed, facilitating evanescent field absorption-based sensing, in particular for aqueous analytes. Our strategy enables a rigorous comparison of several state-of-the-art thin-film waveguides using parametric expressions to predict the achievable limits of detection of the sensing system, while indicating optimum waveguide dimensions and absorption pathlengths, pivotal for the development of next-generation mid-infrared lab-on-chip devices.
In this paper, we present refractive index measurement using a double-slot silicon waveguide-based Mach Zehnder interferometer. We present a double-slot waveguide that offers the best sensitivity and limit of detection compared to wire and single-slot waveguides. We demonstrate ultra-low loss coupling between a single-mode waveguide and a double-slot waveguide and experimental proof for double-slot excitation. The double-slot waveguide is used to demonstrate a highly sensitive concentration sensor. An unbalanced Mach-Zehnder is used as the sensor device to demonstrate concentrations of Potassi…
Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), as an emerging and promising optical integration platform, faces shortages of on-chip active devices including lasers and amplifiers. Here, we report the fabrication on-chip erbium-doped LNOI waveguide amplifiers based on electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching. A net internal gain of ~30 dB/cm in communication band was achieved in the fabricated waveguide amplifiers under the pump of a 974-nm continuous laser. This work develops new active devices on LNOI and will promote the development of LNOI integrated photonics.
As an analogue of electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT), plasmon-induced transparency (PIT) has been realized both in plasmonic metamaterial and waveguide structures. Via near-field coupling within unit cells, PIT with broadband could be produced by plasmonic metamaterials, which, however, has not been realized in on-chip plasmonic waveguide structures. Here, we introduce broadband PIT based on a plasmonic metal-insulator-metal (MIM) waveguide system. Utilizing the direct coupling structure, PIT emerges based on an easy-fabricated structure without gap. By tuning coupling distance, th…
We demonstrate on-chip light amplification with integrated optical waveguide fabricated on erbium-doped thin film lithium niobate on insulator (TFLNOI) using the photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching (PLACE) technique. A maximum internal net gain of 18 dB in the small-signal-gain regime is measured at the peak emission wavelength of 1530 nm for a waveguide length of 3.6 cm, indicating a differential gain per unit length of 5 dB/cm. This work paves the way to the monolithic integration of diverse active and passive photonic components on the TFLNOI platform.
We demonstrate adiabatically tapered fibers terminating in sub-micron tips that are clad with a higher-index material for coupling to an on-chip waveguide. This cladding enables coupling to a high-index waveguide without losing light to the buried oxide. A technique to clad the tip of the tapered fiber with a higher-index polymer is introduced. Conventional tapered waveguides and forked tapered waveguide structures are investigated for coupling from the clad fiber to the on-chip waveguide. We find the forked waveguide facilitates alignment and packaging, while the conventional taper leads to h…
Blood analysis is an important diagnostic tool, as it provides a wealth of information about the patient health. Raman spectroscopy is a promising tool in blood analysis, but widespread clinical application is limited by its low signal strength, as well as complex and costly instrumentation. The growing field of waveguide-based Raman spectroscopy tries to solve these challenges by working towards fully integrated Raman sensors with increased interaction areas. In this work, we demonstrate on-chip resonance Raman measurements of hemoglobin, a crucial component of blood, at 532 nm excitation usi…
We report the fabrication and optical characterization of Yb3+-doped waveguide amplifiers (YDWA) on the thin film lithium niobate fabricated by photolithography assisted chemo-mechanical etching. The fabricated Yb3+-doped lithium niobate waveguides demonstrates low propagation loss of 0.13 dB/cm at 1030 nm and 0.1 dB/cm at 1060 nm. The internal net gain of 5 dB at 1030 nm and 8 dB at 1060 nm are measured on a 4.0 cm long waveguide pumped by 976nm laser diodes, indicating the gain per unit length of 1.25 dB/cm at 1030 nm and 2 dB/cm at 1060 nm, respectively. The integrated Yb3+-doped lithium ni…
Efficient fiber-to-waveguide light coupling has been a key issue in integrated photonics for many years. The main challenge lies in the huge mode mismatch between an optical fiber and a single mode waveguide. Herein, we present a novel fiber-to-waveguide coupler, named "L-coupler", through which the light fed from the top of a chip can bend 90° with low reflection and is then efficiently coupled into an on-chip Si waveguide within a short propagation distance (<20μm). The key element is a bent metal-clad waveguide with a big matched input port. According to our finite-difference time-domain (F…
Wavelength-scale SBS waveguides are enabling novel on-chip functionalities. The micro- and nano-scale SBS structures and the complexity of the SBS waveguides require a characterization technique to monitor the local geometry-dependent SBS responses along the waveguide. In this work, we experimentally demonstrate detection of longitudinal features down to 200$μ$m on a silicon-chalcogenide waveguide using the Brillouin optical correlation domain analysis (BOCDA) technique. We provide simulation and analysis on how multiple acoustic and optical modes and geometrical variations influence the Brill…
Terahertz technology is largely dependent upon planar on-chip antennas that radiate downwards through the substrate, and so an effective means to interface these antennas with integrated waveguides is an attractive prospect. We present a viable methodology for backside coupling between a terahertz oscillator chip and a broadband all-intrinsic-silicon dielectric waveguide. Our investigation employs resonant tunneling diodes as compact two-terminal electronic terahertz oscillators, and terahertz waves are observed from 270 GHz to 409 GHz. The fact that this power is accessed via a curved length …
Waveguide-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (WERS) is a promising technique for sensitive and selective detection of chemicals in a compact chip-scale platform. Coupling light on and off the sensor chip with fibers however presents challenges because of the fluorescence and Raman background generated by the pump light in the fibers; as a result all WERS demonstrations to date have used free-space coupling via lenses. We report a packaged, fiber-bonded WERS chip that filters the background on-chip through collection of the backscattered Raman light. The packaged sensor is integrated in a ruggedized f…
A novel terahertz hybrid waveguide chip consisting of silicon photonic crystals sandwiched in parallel gold plates is developed. Both simulation and experimental results demonstrate that the hybrid waveguide offers a wide single-mode transmission window with low group velocity dispersion and low loss. This compact, substrate-free terahertz chip would play a significant role in broadband, dense-integrated, multi-functional terahertz systems.
The measurement and stabilization of the carrier-envelope offset frequency $f_{\textrm{CEO}}$ via self-referencing is paramount for optical frequency comb generation which has revolutionized precision frequency metrology, spectroscopy, and optical clocks. Over the past decade, the development of chip-scale platforms has enabled compact integrated waveguides for supercontinuum generation. However, there is a critical need for an on-chip self-referencing system that is adaptive to different pump wavelengths, requires low pulse energy, and does not require complicated processing. Here, we demonst…
We demonstrate theoretically that robust mode-locking can be achieved on a semiconductor chip with a waveguide array architecture. The waveguide arrays are used as an ideal saturable absorption mechanism for initial noise start-up as well as pulse shaping and stabilization. The cavity gain is provided by an injection current and forward biasing of the semiconductor material. The technology can be integrated directly with semiconductor architectures and technologies, thus allowing for the potential of an on-chip, broadband device.
We propose and experimentally demonstrate a fiber spectrum analyzer based on a planar waveguide chip butt-coupled with an input fiber and aligned to a standard camera without any free-space optical elements. The chip consists of a single-mode waveguide to connect with the fiber, a beam broadening area, and a waveguide array in which the lengths of the waveguides are designed for both wavelength separation and beam focusing. The facet of the chip is diced open so that the outputs of the array form a near-field emitter. The far field are calculated by the Rayleigh-Sommerfeld diffraction integral…
Traditional photonic integrated circuit (PIC) inherits the mature CMOS fabrication process from the electronic integrated circuit (IC) industry. However, this process also limits the PIC structure to a single-waveguide-layer configuration. In this work, we explore the possibility of the multi-waveguide-layer PIC by proposing and demonstrating a true 3-D optical phased array (OPA) device, with the light exiting from the edge of the device, based on a multi-layer Si3N4/SiO2 platform. The multi-waveguide-layer configuration offers the possibility of utilizing edge couplers at both the input and t…
Single-photon emitters integrated into quantum optical circuits will enable new, miniaturized quantum optical devices. Here, we numerically investigate semiconductor quantum dots embedded to low refractive index contrast waveguides. We discuss a model to compute the coupling efficiency of the emitted light field to the fundamental propagation mode of the waveguide, and we optimize the waveguide dimensional parameters for maximum coupling efficiency. Further, we show that for a laterally cropped waveguide the interplay of Purcell-enhancement and optimized field profile can enhance the coupling …
We propose and design the high confinement InP/In1-xGaxAsyP1-y semiconductor waveguides and report the results of effective wavelength conversion based on this platform. Efficient confinement and mode field area fluctuation at different wavelength is analyzed to achieve the high nonlinear coefficient. The numerical results show that nearly zero phase-mismatch condition can be satisfied through dispersion tailoring of InP/In1-xGaxAsyP1-y waveguides, and the wavelength conversion ranging over 40 nm with the maximum conversion efficiency -26.3 dB is achieved for fixing pump power 100 mW. Meanwhil…
Photonics integrated circuitry would benefit considerably from the ability to arbitrarily control waveguide cross-sections with high precision and low loss, in order to provide more degrees of freedom in manipulating propagating light. Here, we report a new method for femtosecond laser writing of optical-fibre-compatible glass waveguides, namely spherical phase induced multi-core waveguide (SPIM-WG), which addresses this challenging task with three dimensional on-chip light control. Fabricating in the heating regime with high scanning speed, precise deformation of cross-sections is still achie…
We propose an integrated surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) chip based on liquid-core waveguide with total reflection, through which the depression of leaky mode enable a long propagating distance. An Raman enhancement factor for rhodamine 6G of 2.5*105 is obtained, and a excellent repeatability is shown. The peaks in the SERS spectrum of DNA of silkworm clearly illustrate the information of the molecule structure. The integration of the SERS substrate, micro-fluid, and liquid-core waveguide make such a SERS chip attractive for biochemical detection with high performance.
We present an ultra-compact single-shot spectrometer on silicon platform with broad operation bandwidth and high resolution. It consists of 32 stratified waveguide filters (SWFs) with diverse transmission spectra for sampling the unknown spectrum of the input signal and a specially designed ultra-compact structure for splitting the incident signal into 32 filters with low imbalance. Each SWF has a footprint less than 1um x 30um, while the 1x32 splitter and 32 filters in total occupy an area of about 35um x 260um, which to the best of our knowledge, is the smallest footprint spectrometer realiz…
We show that a metasurface-coated two-dimensional (2D) slab waveguide enables the generation of arbitrary complex light fields by combining the extreme versatility and freedom on wavefront control of optical metasurfaces with the compactness of photonic integrated circuits. We demonstrated off-chip 2D focusing and holographic projection with our metasurface-dressed photonic integrated devices. This technology holds the potential for many other optical applications requiring 2D light field manipulation with full on-chip integration, such as solid-state LiDAR and near-eye AR/VR displays.
Coherent guiding of atoms in two-colour evanescent light fields of two main single modes of suspended optical rib waveguides is investigated theoretically. Special attention is paid to waveguides of widths larger than the wavelength of light, which provide better lateral stability of the surface traps and waveguides, and can be used in coherent Bragg beam splitters for matter waves, based on optical gratings formed by interference of evanescent light waves of two crossed optical waveguides. A single-mode regime for evanescent-wave waveguides for atoms is investigated. The general structure and…
We review an on-chip approach for spontaneous Raman spectroscopy and Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) based on evanescent excitation of the analyte as well as evanescent collection of the Raman signal using Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) compatible single mode waveguides. The signal is either directly collected from the analyte molecules or via plasmonic nanoantennas integrated on top of the waveguides. Flexibility in the design of the geometry of the waveguide, and/or the geometry of the antennas, enables optimization of the collection efficiency. Furthermore the sen…
Compact and robust waveguide chips are crucial for new integrated terahertz applications, such as high-speed interconnections between processors and broadband short-range wireless communications. Progress on topological photonic crystals shows potential to improve integrated terahertz systems that suffer from high losses around sharp bends. Robust terahertz topological transport through sharp bends on a silicon chip has been recently reported over a relatively narrow bandwidth. Here, we report the experimental demonstration of topological terahertz planar air-channel metallic waveguides which …
We experimentally demonstrate a record net capacity per wavelength of 1.23~Tb/s over a single silicon-on-insulator (SOI) multimode waveguide for optical interconnects employing on-chip mode-division multiplexing and 11$\times$11 multiple-in-multiple-out (MIMO) digital signal processing.
We present the first study of parametric amplification in hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguides. Broadband on/off amplification up to 26.5~dB at telecom wavelength is reported. Measured nonlinear parameter is 770~$\textrm{W}^{-1} \textrm{m}^{-1}$, nonlinear absorption 28~$\textrm{W}^{-1} \textrm{m}^{-1}$, bandgap $1.61$~eV.
On-chip ultraviolet to infrared (UV-IR) spectrum frequency metrology is of crucial importance as a characterization tool for fundamental studies on quantum physics, chemistry, and biology. Due to the strong material dispersion, traditional techniques fail to demonstrate the device that can be applied to generate coherent broadband spectrum that covers the full UV-IR wavelengths. In this work, we explore several novel techniques for supercontinuum generation covering near-UV to near-IR spectrum using AlN micro-photonic waveguides, which is essential for frequency metrology applications: First, …
Whispering-gallery mode crystalline resonators currently maintain the best quality factor (Q) record, however, compact on-chip packaging is still a challenge although various coupling architectures have been developed. Here, a chemical etching method is proposed to fabricate a miniaturized tapered fiber waveguide on silicon substrate. The Marangoni effect is implemented to reduce the surface roughness of the cone region. The optical loss of 0.1 dB/mm is obtained, and the Q of on-chip crystalline resonator exceeds 108. Additionally, TEC is implanted in the package to actively customize the temp…
Integrated optical devices may replace bulk crystal or fiber based assemblies with a more compact and controllable photon pair and heralded single photon source and generate quantum light at telecommunications wavelengths. Here, we propose that a periodic waveguide consisting of a sequence of optical resonators may outperform conventional waveguides or single resonators and generate more than 1 Giga-pairs per second from a sub-millimeter-long room-temperature silicon device, pumped with only about 10 milliwatts of optical power. Furthermore, the spectral properties of such devices provide nove…
There have been some significant advances in optical-fiber multimode communications. And important effort in on-chip communication has also been recently reported for realizing mode-division multiplexing (MDM). Because of the difficulty in lack of mode converter which can freely perform mode converting function among different waveguide modes, flexible on-chip mode-division switching communication has been rarely reported. Here we show the first demonstration of mode converter which can convert an arbitrary waveguide mode into any other modes with the help of phase tuning. With that mode conve…
We demonstrate comprehensive numerical studies on a hybrid III-V/Si-based waveguide system, serving as a platform for efficient light coupling between an integrated III-V quantum dot emitter to an on-chip quantum photonic integrated circuit defined on a silicon substrate. We propose a platform consisting of a hybrid InP/Si waveguide and an InP-embedded InAs quantum dot, emitting at the telecom C-band near 1550 nm. The platform can be fabricated using the existing semiconductor processing technologies. Our numerical studies reveal nearly 86% of the optical field transfer efficiency between geom…
We present a novel method to fabricate low bend loss femtosecond-laser written waveguides that exploits the differential thermal stabilities of laser induced refractive index modifications. The technique consists of a two-step process; the first involves fabricating large multimode waveguides, while the second step consists of a thermal post-annealing process, which erases the outer ring of the refractive index profile, enabling single mode operation in the C-band. By using this procedure we report waveguides with sharp bends (down to 16.6 mm radius) and high (80%) normalized throughputs. This…
Fully integrated supercontinuum sources on-chip are critical to enabling applications such as portable and mechanically-stable medical imaging devices, chemical sensing and LiDAR. However, the low-efficiency of current supercontinuum generation schemes prevent full on-chip integration. In this letter, we present a scheme where the input energy requirements for integrated supercontinuum generation is drastically lowered by orders of magnitude, for bandwidth generation of the order of 500 to 1000 nm. Through sign-alternating the dispersion in a CMOS compatible silicon nitride waveguide, we achie…
Nonlinear frequency conversion is ubiquitous in laser engineering and quantum information technology. A long-standing goal in photonics is to integrate on-chip semiconductor laser sources with nonlinear optical components. Engineering waveguide lasers with spectra that phase-match to nonlinear processes on the same device is a formidable challenge. Here, we demonstrate difference-frequency generation in an AlGaAs Bragg reflection waveguide which incorporates the gain medium for the pump laser in its core. We include quantum dot layers in the AlGaAs waveguide that generate electrically driven l…
We demonstrate an external cavity laser formed by combining a silicon nitride photonic integrated circuit with a reflective semiconductor optical amplifier. The laser uses an alignment tolerant edge coupler formed by a multi-mode waveguide splitter right at the edge of the silicon nitride chip that relaxes the required alignment to the III-V gain chip and equally splits the power among its two output waveguides. Both the ground and first order mode are excited in the coupler and reach the quadrature condition at the waveguide junction, ensuring equal power to be coupled to both. Two high-quali…
Optical technologies call for waveguide networks featuring high integration densities, low losses, and simple operation. Here, we present polymer waveguides fabricated from a negative tone photoresist via two-photon-lithography in direct laser writing, and show a detailed parameter study of their performance. Specifically, we produce waveguides featuring bend radii down to 40 μm, insertion losses of the order of 10 dB, and loss coefficients smaller than 0.81 dB/mm, facilitating high integration densities in writing fields of 300 μm x 300 μm. A novel three-dimensional coupler design allows for …
Resistance thermometry is a time-tested method for taking temperature measurements. In recent years fundamental limits to resistance-based approaches spurred considerable interest in developing photonic temperature sensors as a viable alternative. In this study we demonstrate that our photonic thermometer, which consists of a silicon waveguide integrated with a Bragg grating, can be used to measure temperature changes over the range from 5 C to 160 C with a combined expanded uncertainty [k = 2 ; 95% confidence level] of 1.25 degree C. The computational modeling of the sensor predicts the reson…
We demonstrate the generation and demultiplexing of quantum correlated photons on a monolithic photonic chip composed of silicon and silica-based waveguides. Photon pairs generated in a nonlinear silicon waveguide are successfully separated into two optical channels of an arrayed-waveguide grating fabricated on a silica-based waveguide platform.
We experimentally demonstrate wide-band (>100 THz) frequency down-conversion of near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond-scale pulses from an Er:fiber laser to the mid-infrared (MIR) using four-wave-mixing (FWM) in photonic-chip silicon-nitride waveguides. The engineered dispersion in the nanophotonic geometry, along with the wide transparency range of silicon nitride, enables large-detuning FWM phase-matching and results in tunable MIR from 2.6-3.6 um on a single chip with 100-pJ-scale pump-pulse energies. Additionally, we observe > 20 dB broadband parametric gain for the NIR pulses when the FWM proce…
Metasurfaces have achieved fruitful results in tailoring complexing light fields in free space. However, a systematic investigation on applying the concept of meta-optics to completely control waveguide modes is still elusive. Here we present a comprehensive catalog capable of selectively and exclusively excite almost arbitrary high-order waveguide modes of interest, leveraging silicon metasurface-patterned silicon nitride waveguides. By simultaneously engineering the phase-matched gradient of the metasurface and the vectorial spatial modal overlap between the nanoantenna near-field and target…
Integrated quantum optics becomes a consequent tendency towards practical quantum information processing. Here, we report the on-chip generation and manipulation of photonic entanglement based on reconfigurable lithium niobate waveguide circuits. By introducing periodically poled structure into the waveguide interferometer, two individual photon-pair sources with controllable phase-shift are produced and cascaded by a quantum interference, resulting in a deterministically separated identical photon pair. The state is characterized by 92.9% visibility Hong-Ou-Mandel interference. Continuous mor…
We report on the design of nanohole/nanobeam cavities in ridge waveguides for on-chip, quantum-dot-based single-photon generation. Our design overcomes limitations of a low-refractive-index-contrast material platform in terms of emitter-mode coupling efficiency and yields an outcoupling efficiency of 0.73 to the output ridge waveguide. Importantly, this high coupling efficiency is combined with broadband operation of 9 nm full-width half-maximum. We provide an explicit design procedure for identifying the optimum geometrical parameters according to the developed design. Besides, we fabricate a…
On-chip super-resolution optical microscopy is an emerging field relying on waveguide excitation with visible light. Here, we investigate two commonly used high-refractive index waveguide platforms, tantalum pentoxide (Ta$_2$O$_5$) and silicon nitride (Si$_3$N$_4$), with respect to their background with excitation in the range 488-640 nm. The background strength from these waveguides were estimated by imaging fluorescent beads. The spectral dependence of the background from these waveguide platforms was also measured. For 640 nm wavelength excitation both the materials had a weak background, b…
