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Bose D, Harrington MW, Isichenko A, Liu K, Wang J, Chauhan N, Newman ZL, Blumenthal DJ. Anneal-free ultra-low loss silicon nitride integrated photonics. LIGHT, SCIENCE & APPLICATIONS 2024; 13:156. [PMID: 38977674 PMCID: PMC11231177 DOI: 10.1038/s41377-024-01503-4] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/15/2024] [Revised: 06/01/2024] [Accepted: 06/10/2024] [Indexed: 07/10/2024]
Abstract
Heterogeneous and monolithic integration of the versatile low-loss silicon nitride platform with low-temperature materials such as silicon electronics and photonics, III-V compound semiconductors, lithium niobate, organics, and glasses has been inhibited by the need for high-temperature annealing as well as the need for different process flows for thin and thick waveguides. New techniques are needed to maintain the state-of-the-art losses, nonlinear properties, and CMOS-compatible processes while enabling this next generation of 3D silicon nitride integration. We report a significant advance in silicon nitride integrated photonics, demonstrating the lowest losses to date for an anneal-free process at a maximum temperature 250 °C, with the same deuterated silane based fabrication flow, for nitride and oxide, for an order of magnitude range in nitride thickness without requiring stress mitigation or polishing. We report record low anneal-free losses for both nitride core and oxide cladding, enabling 1.77 dB m-1 loss and 14.9 million Q for 80 nm nitride core waveguides, more than half an order magnitude lower loss than previously reported sub 300 °C process. For 800 nm-thick nitride, we achieve as good as 8.66 dB m-1 loss and 4.03 million Q, the highest reported Q for a low temperature processed resonator with equivalent device area, with a median of loss and Q of 13.9 dB m-1 and 2.59 million each respectively. We demonstrate laser stabilization with over 4 orders of magnitude frequency noise reduction using a thin nitride reference cavity, and using a thick nitride micro-resonator we demonstrate OPO, over two octave supercontinuum generation, and four-wave mixing and parametric gain with the lowest reported optical parametric oscillation threshold per unit resonator length. These results represent a significant step towards a uniform ultra-low loss silicon nitride homogeneous and heterogeneous platform for both thin and thick waveguides capable of linear and nonlinear photonic circuits and integration with low-temperature materials and processes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Debapam Bose
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Mark W Harrington
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Andrei Isichenko
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Kaikai Liu
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Jiawei Wang
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | - Nitesh Chauhan
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA
| | | | - Daniel J Blumenthal
- Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA, 93106, USA.
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Luo YH, Shi B, Sun W, Chen R, Huang S, Wang Z, Long J, Shen C, Ye Z, Guo H, Liu J. A wideband, high-resolution vector spectrum analyzer for integrated photonics. LIGHT, SCIENCE & APPLICATIONS 2024; 13:83. [PMID: 38584167 PMCID: PMC10999422 DOI: 10.1038/s41377-024-01435-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/10/2023] [Revised: 03/14/2024] [Accepted: 03/20/2024] [Indexed: 04/09/2024]
Abstract
The analysis of optical spectra-emission or absorption-has been arguably the most powerful approach for discovering and understanding matter. The invention and development of many kinds of spectrometers have equipped us with versatile yet ultra-sensitive diagnostic tools for trace gas detection, isotope analysis, and resolving hyperfine structures of atoms and molecules. With proliferating data and information, urgent and demanding requirements have been placed today on spectrum analysis with ever-increasing spectral bandwidth and frequency resolution. These requirements are especially stringent for broadband laser sources that carry massive information and for dispersive devices used in information processing systems. In addition, spectrum analyzers are expected to probe the device's phase response where extra information is encoded. Here we demonstrate a novel vector spectrum analyzer (VSA) that is capable of characterizing passive devices and active laser sources in one setup. Such a dual-mode VSA can measure loss, phase response, and dispersion properties of passive devices. It also can coherently map a broadband laser spectrum into the RF domain. The VSA features a bandwidth of 55.1 THz (1260-1640 nm), a frequency resolution of 471 kHz, and a dynamic range of 56 dB. Meanwhile, our fiber-based VSA is compact and robust. It requires neither high-speed modulators and photodetectors nor any active feedback control. Finally, we employ our VSA for applications including characterization of integrated dispersive waveguides, mapping frequency comb spectra, and coherent light detection and ranging (LiDAR). Our VSA presents an innovative approach for device analysis and laser spectroscopy, and can play a critical role in future photonic systems and applications for sensing, communication, imaging, and quantum information processing.
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Affiliation(s)
- Yi-Han Luo
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
- Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, 518055, Shenzhen, China
| | - Baoqi Shi
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
- Department of Optics and Optical Engineering, University of Science and Technology of China, 230026, Hefei, China
| | - Wei Sun
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
| | - Ruiyang Chen
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
- Shenzhen Institute for Quantum Science and Engineering, Southern University of Science and Technology, 518055, Shenzhen, China
| | - Sanli Huang
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, 230088, Hefei, China
| | - Zhongkai Wang
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
| | - Jinbao Long
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
| | - Chen Shen
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China
| | - Zhichao Ye
- Qaleido Photonics, 518048, Shenzhen, China
| | - Hairun Guo
- Key Laboratory of Specialty Fiber Optics and Optical Access Networks, Shanghai University, 200444, Shanghai, China
| | - Junqiu Liu
- International Quantum Academy, 518048, Shenzhen, China.
- Hefei National Laboratory, University of Science and Technology of China, 230088, Hefei, China.
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Gao M, Lüpken NM, Fallnich C. Highly efficient and widely tunable Si 3N 4 waveguide-based optical parametric oscillator. OPTICS EXPRESS 2024; 32:10899-10909. [PMID: 38570952 DOI: 10.1364/oe.515511] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/08/2023] [Accepted: 02/05/2024] [Indexed: 04/05/2024]
Abstract
We demonstrate an efficient and widely tunable synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillator (OPO) exploiting four-wave mixing (FWM) in a silicon nitride (Si3N4) waveguide with inverted tapers. At a pump pulse duration of 2 ps, the waveguide-based OPO (WOPO) exhibited a high external pump-to-idler conversion efficiency of up to -7.64 dB at 74% pump depletion and a generation of up to 387 pJ output idler pulse energy around 1.13 μm wavelength. Additionally, the parametric oscillation resulted in a 64 dB amplification of idler power spectral density in comparison to spontaneous FWM, allowing for a wide idler wavelength tunability of 191 nm around 1.15 μm. Our WOPO represents a significant improvement of conversion efficiency as well as output energy among χ3 WOPOs, rendering an important step towards a highly efficient and widely tunable chip-based light source for, e.g., coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering.
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Liu H, Brodnik GM, Zang J, Carlson DR, Black JA, Papp SB. Threshold and Laser Conversion in Nanostructured-Resonator Parametric Oscillators. PHYSICAL REVIEW LETTERS 2024; 132:023801. [PMID: 38277595 DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.132.023801] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/13/2023] [Accepted: 11/02/2023] [Indexed: 01/28/2024]
Abstract
We explore optical parametric oscillation (OPO) in nanophotonic resonators, enabling arbitrary, nonlinear phase matching and nearly lossless control of energy conversion. Such pristine OPO laser converters are determined by nonlinear light-matter interactions, making them both technologically flexible and broadly reconfigurable. We utilize a nanostructured inner-wall modulation in the resonator to achieve universal phase matching for OPO-laser conversion, but coherent backscattering also induces a counterpropagating pump laser. This depletes the intraresonator optical power in either direction, increasing the OPO threshold power and limiting laser-conversion efficiency, the ratio of optical power in target signal and idler frequencies to the pump. We develop an analytical model of this system that emphasizes an understanding of optimal laser-conversion and threshold behaviors, and we use the model to guide experiments with nanostructured-resonator OPO laser-conversion circuits, fully integrated on chip and unlimited by group-velocity dispersion. Our Letter demonstrates the fundamental connection between OPO laser-conversion efficiency and the resonator coupling rate, subject to the relative phase and power of counterpropagating pump fields. We achieve (40±4) mW of on-chip power, corresponding to (41±4)% conversion efficiency, and discover a path toward near-unity OPO laser-conversion efficiency.
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Affiliation(s)
- Haixin Liu
- Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Grant M Brodnik
- Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Jizhao Zang
- Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - David R Carlson
- Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Octave Photonics, Louisville, Colorado, USA
| | - Jennifer A Black
- Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, USA
| | - Scott B Papp
- Time and Frequency Division, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, Colorado, USA
- Department of Physics, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado, USA
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Zhou L, Yi A, Su Y, Yang B, Zhu Y, Cai J, Wang C, Wu Z, Song S, Zhang J, Ou X. High-Q adiabatic micro-resonators on a wafer-scale ion-sliced 4H-silicon carbide-on-insulator platform. OPTICS LETTERS 2023; 48:6279-6282. [PMID: 38039246 DOI: 10.1364/ol.505777] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/14/2023] [Accepted: 10/26/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
A 4H-silicon carbide-on-insulator (4H-SiCOI) has emerged as a prominent material contender for integrated photonics owing to its outstanding material properties such as CMOS compatibility, high refractive index, and high second- and third-order nonlinearities. Although various micro-resonators have been realized on the 4H-SiCOI platform, enabling numerous applications including frequency conversion and electro-optical modulators, they may suffer from a challenge associated with spatial mode interactions, primarily due to the widespread use of multimode waveguides. We study the suppression of spatial mode interaction with Euler bends, and demonstrate micro-resonators with improved Q values above 1 × 105 on ion-sliced 4H-SiCOI platform with a SiC thickness nonuniformity less than 1%. The spatial-mode-interaction-free micro-resonators reported on the CMOS-compatible wafer-scale 4H-SiCOI platform would constitute an important ingredient for the envisaged large-scale integrated nonlinear photonic circuits.
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Ayan A, Liu J, Kippenberg TJ, Brès CS. Towards efficient broadband parametric conversion in ultra-long Si 3N 4 waveguides. OPTICS EXPRESS 2023; 31:40916-40927. [PMID: 38041380 DOI: 10.1364/oe.502648] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/24/2023] [Accepted: 10/05/2023] [Indexed: 12/03/2023]
Abstract
Broadband continuous-wave parametric gain and efficient wavelength conversion is an important functionality to bring on-chip. Recently, meter-long silicon nitride waveguides have been utilized to obtain continuous-traveling-wave parametric gain, establishing the great potential of photonic-integrated-circuit-based parametric amplifiers. However, the effect of spiral structure on the performance and achievable bandwidth of such devices have not yet been studied. In this work, we investigate the efficiency-bandwidth performance in up to 2 meter-long waveguides engineered for broadband operation. Moreover, we analyze the conversion efficiency fluctuations that have been observed in meter-long Si3N4 waveguides and study the use of temperature control to limit the fluctuations.
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Lu X, Sun Y, Chanana A, Javid UA, Davanco M, Srinivasan K. Multi-mode microcavity frequency engineering through a shifted grating in a photonic crystal ring. PHOTONICS RESEARCH 2023; 11:10.1364/prj.500375. [PMID: 38681822 PMCID: PMC11047134 DOI: 10.1364/prj.500375] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/21/2023] [Accepted: 08/30/2023] [Indexed: 05/01/2024]
Abstract
Frequency engineering of whispering-gallery resonances is essential in microcavity nonlinear optics. The key is to control the frequencies of the cavity modes involved in the underlying nonlinear optical process to satisfy its energy conservation criterion. Compared to the conventional method that tailors dispersion by cross-sectional geometry, thereby impacting all cavity mode frequencies, grating-assisted microring cavities, often termed as photonic crystal microrings, provide more enabling capabilities through mode-selective frequency control. For example, a simple single period grating added to a microring has been used for single frequency engineering in Kerr optical parametric oscillation (OPO) and frequency combs. Recently, this approach has been extended to multi-frequency engineering by using multi-period grating functions, but at the cost of increasingly complex grating profiles that require challenging fabrication. Here, we demonstrate a simple approach, which we term as shifted grating multiple mode splitting (SGMMS), where spatial displacement of a single period grating imprinted on the inner boundary of the microring creates a rotational asymmetry that frequency splits multiple adjacent cavity modes. This approach is easy to implement and presents no additional fabrication challenges compared to an unshifted grating, and yet is very powerful in providing multi-frequency engineering functionality for nonlinear optics. We showcase an example where SGMMS enables OPO across a wide range of pump wavelengths in a normal-dispersion device that otherwise would not support OPO.
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Affiliation(s)
- Xiyuan Lu
- Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
- Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Yi Sun
- Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
- Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Ashish Chanana
- Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
| | - Usman A. Javid
- Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
- Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Marcelo Davanco
- Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
| | - Kartik Srinivasan
- Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
- Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
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