Niobium-tantalum oxide as a material platform for linear and nonlinear integrated photonics.

Here we realize the first reported integrated photonic devices fabricated using sputtered niobium-tantalum oxide films. Sputtered niobium-tantalum oxide films are highly promising for integrated photonics as they are scalable to high volume manufacturing, possess high refractive index, and are transparent in the ultraviolet through near infrared wavelength range. At a wavelength near 1550 nm, we observe propagation losses as low as 0.47 dB/cm in waveguides and ring resonators with resonator quality factors as high as 860,000. We also characterize the nonlinear performance of these films and find a Kerr coefficient (n2) of 1.2 ( ± 0.2) × 10-18 m2/W. With this high Kerr coefficient we demonstrate optical parametric oscillation in a ring resonator and supercontinuum generation in a waveguide.

Secure communications using nonlinear silicon photonic keys.

We present a secure communication system constructed using pairs of nonlinear photonic physical unclonable functions (PUFs) that harness physical chaos in integrated silicon micro-cavities. Compared to a large, electronically stored one-time pad, our method provisions large amounts of information within the intrinsically complex nanostructure of the micro-cavities. By probing a micro-cavity with a rapid sequence of spectrally-encoded ultrafast optical pulses and measuring the lightwave responses, we experimentally demonstrate the ability to extract 2.4 Gb of key material from a single micro-cavity device. Subsequently, in a secure communication experiment with pairs of devices, we achieve bit error rates below 10-5 at code rates of up to 0.1. The PUFs' responses are never transmitted over the channel or stored in digital memory, thus enhancing the security of the system. Additionally, the micro-cavity PUFs are extremely small, inexpensive, robust, and fully compatible with telecommunications infrastructure, components, and electronic fabrication. This approach can serve one-time pad or public key exchange applications where high security is required.

Silicon photonic physical unclonable function.

Physical unclonable functions (PUFs) serve as a hardware source of private information that cannot be duplicated and have applications in hardware integrity and information security. Here we demonstrate a photonic PUF based on ultrafast nonlinear optical interactions in a chaotic silicon micro-cavity. The device is probed with a spectrally-encoded ultrashort optical pulse, which nonlinearly interacts with the micro-cavity. This interaction produces a highly complex and unpredictable, yet deterministic, ultrafast response that can serve as a unique "fingerprint" of the cavity and as a source of private information for the device's holder. Experimentally, we extract 17.1-kbit binary keys from six different photonic PUF designs and demonstrate the uniqueness and reproducibility of these keys. Furthermore, we experimentally test exact copies of the six photonic PUFs and demonstrate their unclonability due to unavoidable fabrication variations.

Wavelength multicasting through four-wave mixing with an optical comb source.

Based on four-wave mixing (FWM) with an optical comb source (OCS), we experimentally demonstrate 26-way or 15-way wavelength multicasting of 10-Gb/s differential phase-shift keying (DPSK) data in a highly-nonlinear fiber (HNLF) or a silicon waveguide, respectively. The OCS provides multiple spectrally equidistant pump waves leading to a multitude of FWM products after mixing with the signal. We achieve error-free operation with power penalties less than 5.7 dB for the HNLF and 4.2 dB for the silicon waveguide, respectively.

Four-wave mixing Bragg scattering in hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguides.

We demonstrate 15% on-chip conversion efficiency of four-wave mixing Bragg scattering in a hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguide with only 55 and 194 mW peak pump powers in the waveguide. The lightwaves can be maintained in the telecommunication band, and the operational bandwidth is measured to be larger than 4 nm.

Pump-degenerate phase-sensitive amplification in amorphous silicon waveguides.

We demonstrate phase-sensitive amplification in hydrogenated amorphous silicon photonic waveguides based on pump-degenerate four-wave mixing at continuous-wave (CW) operation, as well as at repetition rates of both 90 MHz and 10 GHz. At 90 MHz pulsed operation, an 11.7 dB phase-sensitive extinction ratio (ER) is achieved with a peak pump power of 1.6 W. At 10 GHz pulsed operation, a 6.6 dB phase-sensitive ER is achieved with a peak pump power of 0.5 W. At CW operation, a 1.6 dB ER is achieved with a pump power of 38 mW.

High-speed all-optical NAND/AND logic gates using four-wave mixing Bragg scattering.

A high-speed all-optical NAND logic gate is proposed and experimentally demonstrated using four-wave mixing Bragg scattering in highly nonlinear fiber. NAND/AND logic functions are implemented at two wavelengths by encoding logic inputs on two pumps via on-off keying. A 15.2-dB depletion of the signal is obtained for NAND operation, and time domain measurements show 10-Gb/s NAND/AND logic operations with open eye diagrams. The approach can be readily extended to higher data rates and transferred to on-chip waveguide platforms.

Wavelength-agile near-IR optical parametric oscillator using a deposited silicon waveguide.

Using a deposited hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) waveguide, we demonstrate ultra-broad bandwidth (60 THz) parametric amplification via four-wave mixing (FWM), and subsequently achieve the first silicon optical parametric oscillator (OPO) at near-IR wavelengths. Utilization of the time-dispersion-tuned technique provides an optical source with active wavelength tuning over 42 THz with a fixed pump wave.

Non-instantaneous optical nonlinearity of an a-Si:H nanowire waveguide.

We use pump-probe spectroscopy and continuous wave cross-phase and cross-amplitude modulation measurements to study the optical nonlinearity of a hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) nanowire waveguide, and we compare the results to those of a crystalline silicon waveguide of similar dimensions. The a-Si:H nanowire shows essentially zero instantaneous two-photon absorption, but it displays a strong, long-lived non-instantaneous nonlinearity that is both absorptive and refractive. Power scaling measurements show that this non-instantaneous nonlinearity in a-Si:H scales as a third-order nonlinearity, and the refractive component possesses the opposite sign to that expected for free-carrier dispersion.

Multichannel photon-pair generation using hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguides.

We demonstrate highly efficient photon-pair generation using an 8 mm long hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) waveguide in far-detuned multiple wavelength channels simultaneously, measuring a coincidence-to-accidental ratio as high as 400. We also characterize the contamination from Raman scattering and show it to be insignificant over a spectrum span of at least 5 THz. Our results highlight a-Si:H as a potential high-performance, CMOS-compatible platform for large-scale quantum applications, particularly those based on the use of multiplexed quantum signals.

Silicon-chip-based ultrafast optical oscilloscope.

With the realization of faster telecommunication data rates and an expanding interest in ultrafast chemical and physical phenomena, it has become important to develop techniques that enable simple measurements of optical waveforms with subpicosecond resolution. State-of-the-art oscilloscopes with high-speed photodetectors provide single-shot waveform measurement with 30-ps resolution. Although multiple-shot sampling techniques can achieve few-picosecond resolution, single-shot measurements are necessary to analyse events that are rapidly varying in time, asynchronous, or may occur only once. Further improvements in single-shot resolution are challenging, owing to microelectronic bandwidth limitations. To overcome these limitations, researchers have looked towards all-optical techniques because of the large processing bandwidths that photonics allow. This has generated an explosion of interest in the integration of photonics on standard electronics platforms, which has spawned the field of silicon photonics and promises to enable the next generation of computer processing units and advances in high-bandwidth communications. For the success of silicon photonics in these areas, on-chip optical signal-processing for optical performance monitoring will prove critical. Beyond next-generation communications, silicon-compatible ultrafast metrology would be of great utility to many fundamental research fields, as evident from the scientific impact that ultrafast measurement techniques continue to make. Here, using time-to-frequency conversion via the nonlinear process of four-wave mixing on a silicon chip, we demonstrate a waveform measurement technology within a silicon-photonic platform. We measure optical waveforms with 220-fs resolution over lengths greater than 100 ps, which represent the largest record-length-to-resolution ratio (>450) of any single-shot-capable picosecond waveform measurement technique. Our implementation allows for single-shot measurements and uses only highly developed electronic and optical materials of complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible silicon-on-insulator technology and single-mode optical fibre. The mature silicon-on-insulator platform and the ability to integrate electronics with these CMOS-compatible photonics offer great promise to extend this technology into commonplace bench-top and chip-scale instruments.

Highly sensitive ultrafast pulse characterization using hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguides.

We experimentally demonstrate frequency resolved optical gating (FROG) via four-wave mixing (FWM) in ultrahigh nonlinearity hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguides. We demonstrate FROG characterization using a FWM architecture that mimics second harmonic generation (SHG) FROG for pulsewidths as low as 360 fs. Additionally, we demonstrate for the first time a FWM architecture analogous to third harmonic generation (THG) FROG and validate its ability to overcome the direction of time ambiguity of the SHG-like architecture. Both architectures allow for sensitivities suitable for future telecommunications signals.

Waveguide-fed optical hybrid plasmonic patch nano-antenna.

We propose a novel optical hybrid plasmonic patch nano-antenna for operation at the standard telecommunication wavelength of 1550 nm. The nano-antenna is designed to be compatible with a hybrid plasmonic waveguide through matching of both the operational mode and the wave impedance. The antenna is designed to receive the optical signal from a planar waveguide and redirect the signal out of plane, and is therefore useful for inter- or intra-chip optical communications and sensing. The transmission line model in conjunction with surface plasmon theory is used to develop analytical formulas for design and analysis, and a 3-dimensional full-wave numerical method is used to validate the design. The proposed device provides a bandwidth of more than 15 THz, a gain of 5.6 dB, and an efficiency of 87%. Furthermore, by designing an 8 × 8 array of the proposed antenna, a directivity of 20 dBi and steering of the beam angle are achieved by controlling the relative phase shift between elements of the array.

Ultralow-power all-optical processing of high-speed data signals in deposited silicon waveguides.

Utilizing a 6-mm-long hydrogenated amorphous silicon nanowaveguide, we demonstrate error-free (BER < 10(-9)) 160-to-10 Gb/s OTDM demultiplexing using ultralow switching peak powers of 50 mW. This material is deposited at low temperatures enabling a path toward multilayer integration and therefore massive scaling of the number of devices in a single photonic chip.

Ultralow power continuous-wave frequency conversion in hydrogenated amorphous silicon waveguides.

We demonstrate wavelength conversion through nonlinear parametric processes in hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) with maximum conversion efficiency of -13 dB at telecommunication data rates (10 GHz) using only 15 mW of pump peak power. Conversion bandwidths as large as 150 nm (20 THz) are measured in continuous-wave regime at telecommunication wavelengths. The nonlinear refractive index of the material is determined by four-wave mixing (FWM) to be n(2)=7.43×10(-13) cm(2)/W, approximately an order of magnitude larger than that of single crystal silicon.

Simultaneous wavelength conversion of ASK and DPSK signals based on four-wave-mixing in dispersion engineered silicon waveguides.

We experimentally demonstrate four-wave-mixing (FWM)-based continuous wavelength conversion of optical differential-phase-shift-keyed (DPSK) signals with large wavelength conversion ranges as well as simultaneous wavelength conversion of dual-wavelength channels with mixed modulation formats in 1.1-cm-long dispersion-engineered silicon waveguides. We first validate up to 100-nm wavelength conversion range for 10-Gb/s DPSK signals, showcasing the capability to perform phase-preserving operations at high bit rates in chip-scale devices over wide conversion ranges. We further validate the wavelength conversion of dual-wavelength channels modulated with 10-Gb/s packetized phase-shift-keyed (PSK) and amplitude-shift-keyed (ASK) signals; demonstrate simultaneous operation on multiple channels with mixed formats in chip-scale devices. For both configurations, we measure the spectral and temporal responses and evaluate the performances using bit-error-rate (BER) measurements.

Continuous-wave mid-infrared frequency conversion in silicon nanowaveguides.

We report the first demonstration of cw wavelength conversion from the telecommunications band to the mid-IR (MIR) region via four-wave mixing in silicon nanowaveguides. We measure a parametric bandwidth of 748 nm by converting a 1636 nm signal to produce a 2384 nm idler and show continuously tunable wavelength conversion from 1792 to 2116 nm. This report indicates that the advantages of silicon photonics may be leveraged to create devices for a large range of MIR applications that require cw operation.

Frequency conversion over two-thirds of an octave in silicon nanowaveguides.

We demonstrate ultrabroad-bandwidth low-power frequency conversion of continuous-wave light in a dispersion engineered silicon nanowaveguide via four-wave mixing. Our process produces continuously tunable four-wave mixing wavelength conversion over two-thirds of an octave from 1241-nm to 2078-nm wavelength light with a pump wavelength in the telecommunications C-band.

Wavelength multicasting in silicon photonic nanowires.

We demonstrate a scalable, energy-efficient, and pragmatic method for high-bandwidth wavelength multicasting using FWM in silicon photonic nanowires. We experimentally validate up to a sixteen-way multicast of 40-Gb/s NRZ data using spectral and temporal responses, and evaluate the resulting data integrity degradation using BER measurements and power penalty performance metrics. We further examine the impact of this wavelength multicasting scalability on conversion efficiency. Finally, we experimentally evaluate up to a three-way multicast of 160-Gb/s pulsed-RZ data using spectral and temporal responses, representing the first on-chip wavelength multicasting of pulsed-RZ data.

Temporal-imaging system with simple external-clock triggering.

We demonstrate a temporal imaging system based on parametric mixing that allows simple triggering from an external clock by using a time-lens-based pump laser. We integrate our temporal imaging system into a time-to-frequency measurement scheme and demonstrate the ability to perform characterization of temporal waveforms with 1.4-ps resolution and a 530-ps record length. We also integrate our system into a temporal-magnification scheme and demonstrate single-shot operation with a 113 x magnification factor, 1.5-ps resolution, and 220-ps record length.