AI 中文总结
研究人员开发体块铌酸锂衬底上非晶硅碳化的单片光子平台，打破成本-性能-规模化权衡，实现创纪录电光调谐效率，提升调谐能力。
AI 中文摘要
功能电光（EO）可调谐光子集成电路对下一代信息处理和高级计算至关重要，其中铌酸锂（LiNbO₃）等铁电材料具备优异的光学性能和多样的调谐机制。然而，除了实现高性能器件外，LiNbO₃光子集成电路的实际应用还需快速且具成本效益的规模化，这一目标因离子切片薄膜铌酸锂及晶圆键合工艺的制造复杂性和高成本而面临挑战。为解决该缺口，我们展示了一种完全单片的光子平台——体块LiNbO₃晶体衬底上的非晶硅碳化（a-SiC），该平台可实现可规模化、与CMOS兼容、低成本且高密度的光子集成电路，无需依赖薄膜LiNbO₃。这种集成方法打破了长期存在的成本-性能-规模化权衡，且从根本上消除了对离子切片、晶圆键合和LiNbO₃刻蚀等复杂制造工艺的需求。该平台在体块LiNbO₃晶体衬底上实现了高密度、低损耗以及创纪录的电光调谐效率VπL=2.87 V·cm。此外，利用光子晶体带隙附近的慢光效应，实现了8.5倍的电光调谐效率增强，凸显了该平台在模式限制控制和色散工程方面的能力。
英文摘要
Functional electro-optic (EO) tunable photonic integrated circuits are crucial to next-generation information processing and advanced computing, where ferroelectric materials such as lithium niobate (LiNbO3) provide outstanding optical properties and versatile tuning mechanisms. However, beyond achieving high-performance devices, practical deployment of LiNbO3 photonic integrated circuits requires rapid and cost-effective scale-up, which remains challenging because of the fabrication complexity and high costs of ion-sliced thin-film lithium niobate and wafer bonding processes. To address this gap, we demonstrate a fully monolithic photonic platform, amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC) on bulk LiNbO3 crystal substrate, enabling scalable, CMOS-compatible, low-cost, and high-density photonic integrated circuits without relying on thin-film LiNbO3. This integration approach breaks the long-standing cost-performance-scalability tradeoff, and intrinsically eliminates the need for sophisticated fabrication processes, including ion slicing, wafer bonding, and LiNbO3 etching. It realizes high-density, low-loss, and record high EO tuning efficiency of VpiL = 2.87 Vcm on bulk LiNbO3 crystal substrate. Furthermore, leveraging slow-light effect near photonic crystal bandgap, an 8.5-fold EO tuning efficiency enhancement is achieved, highlighting the platform's capability in confinement control and dispersion engineering.
