Efficient coupling between free electrons and the supermode of a silicon slot waveguide.

Laser light can modulate the kinetic energy spectrum of free electrons and induce extremely high acceleration gradients, which are instrumental to electron microscopy and electron acceleration, respectively. We present a design scheme for a silicon photonic slot waveguide which hosts a supermode to interact with free electrons. The efficiency of this interaction relies on the coupling strength per photon along the interaction length. We predict an optimum value of 0.4266, resulting in the maximum energy gain of 28.27 keV for an optical pulse energy of only 0.22 nJ and duration 1 ps. The acceleration gradient is 1.05 GeV/m, which is lower than the maximum imposed by the damage threshold of Si waveguides. Our scheme shows how the coupling efficiency and energy gain can be maximized without maximizing the acceleration gradient. It highlights the potential of silicon photonics technology in hosting electron-photon interactions with direct applications in free-electron acceleration, radiation sources, and quantum information science.

Standalone, CMOS-based Faraday rotation in a silicon photonic waveguide.

Nonreciprocity is a fundamental requirement of signal isolation in optical communication systems. However, on chip isolator designs require either post-processing steps or external magnetic biasing, which are impractical for commercial applications. This raises the need for standalone devices which support nonreciprocal functionality using standardized fabrication techniques. Here, we report the first design of an electromagnetic coil surrounding a waveguide which exclusively employed the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) process flow. The coil supported an electric current up to 14 mA. In simulations, it generated an alternating magnetic flux density up to 1.16 mT inside a strip waveguide and thereby induced a rotation of 50.71 picodegrees for the fundamental transverse-magnetic mode at a wavelength of 1352 nm. Our analysis further revealed methods to increase the rotation by orders of magnitude. It demonstrated the scope of manufacturing processes and serves as a building block for the development of a commercially viable, on-chip optical isolator.