Foundry manufacturing of octave-spanning microcombs.

Soliton microcombs provide a chip-based, octave-spanning source for self-referencing and optical metrology. We use a silicon nitride integrated photonics foundry to manufacture 280 single-chip solutions of octave-spanning microcombs on a wafer. By group-velocity dispersion (GVD) engineering with the waveguide cross section, we shape the soliton spectrum for dispersive-wave spectral enhancements at the frequencies for f-2f self-referencing. Moreover, we demonstrate the other considerations, including models for soliton spectrum design, ultra-broadband resonator external coupling, low-loss edge couplers, and the nonlinear self-interactions of few-cycle solitons. To cover the fabrication tolerance, we systematically scan 336 parameter sets of resonator width and radius, ensuring at least one device on each chip can yield an octave-spanning comb with an electronically detectable carrier-envelope offset frequency, which has been supported by our experiment. Our design and testing process permit highly repeatable creation of single-chip solutions of soliton microcombs optimized for pump operation ∼100 mW and high comb mode power for f-2f detection, which is the central component of a compact microsystem for optical metrology.

Photonic bandgap microcombs at 1064 nm.

Microresonator frequency combs and their design versatility have revolutionized research areas from data communication to exoplanet searches. While microcombs in the 1550 nm band are well documented, there is interest in using microcombs in other bands. Here, we demonstrate the formation and spectral control of normal-dispersion dark soliton microcombs at 1064 nm. We generate 200 GHz repetition rate microcombs by inducing a photonic bandgap of the microresonator mode for the pump laser with a photonic crystal. We perform the experiments with normal-dispersion microresonators made from Ta2O5 and explore unique soliton pulse shapes and operating behaviors. By adjusting the resonator dispersion through its nanostructured geometry, we demonstrate control over the spectral bandwidth of these combs, and we employ numerical modeling to understand their existence range. Our results highlight how photonic design enables microcomb spectra tailoring across wide wavelength ranges, offering potential in bioimaging, spectroscopy, and photonic-atomic quantum technologies.

Threshold and Laser Conversion in Nanostructured-Resonator Parametric Oscillators.

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.

Multi-dimensional data transmission using inverse-designed silicon photonics and microcombs.

The use of optical interconnects has burgeoned as a promising technology that can address the limits of data transfer for future high-performance silicon chips. Recent pushes to enhance optical communication have focused on developing wavelength-division multiplexing technology, and new dimensions of data transfer will be paramount to fulfill the ever-growing need for speed. Here we demonstrate an integrated multi-dimensional communication scheme that combines wavelength- and mode- multiplexing on a silicon photonic circuit. Using foundry-compatible photonic inverse design and spectrally flattened microcombs, we demonstrate a 1.12-Tb/s natively error-free data transmission throughout a silicon nanophotonic waveguide. Furthermore, we implement inverse-designed surface-normal couplers to enable multimode optical transmission between separate silicon chips throughout a multimode-matched fibre. All the inverse-designed devices comply with the process design rules for standard silicon photonic foundries. Our approach is inherently scalable to a multiplicative enhancement over the state of the art silicon photonic transmitters.

A continuum of bright and dark-pulse states in a photonic-crystal resonator.

Nonlinearity is a powerful determinant of physical systems. Controlling nonlinearity leads to interesting states of matter and new applications. In optics, diverse families of continuous and discrete states arise from balance of nonlinearity and group-velocity dispersion (GVD). Moreover, the dichotomy of states with locally enhanced or diminished field intensity depends critically on the relative sign of nonlinearity and either anomalous or normal GVD. Here, we introduce a resonator with unconditionally normal GVD and a single defect mode that supports both dark, reduced-intensity states and bright, enhanced-intensity states. We access and explore this dark-to-bright pulse continuum by phase-matching with a photonic-crystal resonator, which mediates the competition of nonlinearity and normal GVD. These stationary temporal states are coherent frequency combs, featuring highly designable spectra and ultralow noise repetition-frequency and intensity characteristics. The dark-to-bright continuum illuminates physical roles of Kerr nonlinearity, GVD, and laser propagation in a gapped nanophotonic medium.

Low dark current III-V on silicon photodiodes by heteroepitaxy.

Top-illuminated PIN and modified uni-traveling carrier (MUTC) photodiodes based on InGaAs/InAlAs/InP were epitaxially grown on Si templates. Photodiodes with 30-µm diameter have dark currents as low as 10 nA at 3 V corresponding to a dark current density of only 0.8 mA/cm2. The responsivity, 3-dB bandwidth, output power and third-order output intercept point (OIP3) were 0.79 A/W, 9 GHz, 2.6 dBm and 15 dBm, respectively.

Hybrid integration of modified uni-traveling carrier photodiodes on a multi-layer silicon nitride platform using total reflection mirrors.

We demonstrate hybrid integration of modified uni-traveling carrier photodiodes on a multi-layer silicon nitride platform using total reflection mirrors etched by focused ion beam. The hybrid photodetectors show external responsivity of 0.15 A/W and bandwidth of 3.5 GHz for devices with a diameter of 80 µm. The insertion loss of the waveguide is 3 dB and the coupling efficiency of the total reflection mirror is -3 dB. The highest RF output power is -0.5 dBm measured at 3 GHz with 9 mA photocurrent and -9 V bias.

Investigation on Nyquist pulse generation using a single dual-parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator.

The generation of Nyquist pulses with a dual parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (DPMZM) driven by a single RF signal is demonstrated theoretically and experimentally. A complete theoretical analysis is developed and the limitation of the proposed scheme is also discussed. It is theoretically proved that Nyquist pulses with a spectrum of 5 flat comb lines can be generated using a single DPMZM, which is also verified with simulation. 7 flat comb lines in frequency domain can also be obtained if a large RF driving voltage is applied to DPMZM but the generated waveforms won't present a sinc-shape. This scheme is further investigated experimentally. 40 GHz Nyquist pulses with full-width-at-half-maximum (FWHM) less than 4.65 ps, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) better than 29.5 dB, and normalized root-mean-square error (NRMSE) less than 2.4% are generated. It is found that a tradeoff exists between the insertion loss of the DPMZM and the deviation of generated pulses. The tunability of repetition rate is experimentally verified by generation of 1 GHz to 40 GHz Nyquist pulses with SNR better than 28.4 dB and NRMSE less than 6.15%.

Low overhead slipless carrier phase estimation scheme.

Two slipless schemes are compared with application to single carrier 30 Gbaud quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) system. An equivalent linewidth model considering the phase noise induced by both the laser linewidth and fiber nonlinearity is applied in the performance analysis. The simulation results show that it is possible to mitigate cycle slip (CS) using only 0.39% pilot overhead for the proposed blind carrier phase recovery (CPR) + pilot-symbols-aided phase unwrapping (PAPU) scheme within 1 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) penalty limit at the bit error ratio (BER) of 10(-3) with 4 MHz equivalent linewidth.

Ultra-low timing-jitter 40GHz clock recovery using EAM-MZM double-loop and its application in a 640Gbit/s OTDM system.

An ultra-low timing-jitter clock recovery scheme based on EAM-MZM double-loop with the ability of simultaneous time-division demultiplexing is proposed and demonstrated in a 640 Gbit/s OTDM transmission system. Compared with traditional clock recovery scheme based on OEO loop, significant timing-jitter improvement of the 40 GHz recovered clock is realized: from 58 fs to 30 fs in back-to-back configuration and from 59 fs to 35 fs after 400 km transmission in the 100 Hz to 10 MHz range, without increasing the overall system complexity and cost. Enabled by the proposed clock recovery and demultiplexing scheme, error-free performance of the OTDM system is achieved after 400 km transmission with an average power penalty of 4dB.