Benefiting from high parallelism and low latency, photonic integrated circuits (PICs) constructed from on-chip building blocks with diverse functions have emerged as a promising technology in the realm of optical neural networks (ONN). Tunable components, through the utilization of physical mechanisms such as thermo-optic effect and free-carrier plasma dispersion effect, structural motion like microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), or material properties including liquid crystal and two-dimensional materials, play a pivotal role in enabling reconfigurability within PICs. Among these reconfiguration schemes, chalcogenide phase change materials (PCMs) based photonic devices have attracted extensive attention owing to their high energy efficiency and integration density brought by huge refractive index contrasts and nonvolatility of PCMs. However, this nonvolatile modulation method meets difficulty in scalability since the process flow of integrating PCMs into silicon photonics is insupportable in the foundries. Here, we demonstrated a back-end-of-line (BEOL) integration platform for the monolithic integration of PCMs into silicon photonic devices without modification in standard process design kits (PDK). This is achieved by fabricating a low-loss oxide trench to expose the waveguide core at the functional area from the top dielectric layer, with assistance from a silicon nitride etch stop layer. On this basis, integrated photonic devices with stable switching performance and repeatable multi-bit storage capability have been developed, possessing the potential for crucial blocks of PICs in ONN applications that require infrequent reconfiguration, such as hardware error correction before training and data storage in pre-trained models.
Currently, integrated optoelectronic technology has made significant progress in commercial applications. However, existing technologies are approaching their theoretical limits. How to introduce new materials to achieve novel on-chip optical field control and generate disruptive breakthroughs will be crucial for meeting the future demands of optical computing, optical communication, optical sensing, and other applications. Chalcogenide materials, also known as chalcogenide glass materials, mainly refer to compounds containing sulfur, selenium, tellurium, and other chalcogen elements. They not only possess excellent nonlinear optical properties and excellent micro-nano processing characteristics but also some specific compositions of chalcogenide glass exhibit nonvolatile phase transition characteristics for exploring nonvolatile reconfigurable photon platforms. This paper will mainly introduce some progress in our research on scalable fabrication techniques for integrated photonic devices based on chalcogenide materials.
Intelligent photonics, driven by silicon photonics, is revolutionizing high-speed data processing, low-power computing, and precision sensing. Leveraging these advances, photonic chips are enabling the development of optical neural networks and nonlinear activation mapping, which are crucial for addressing the demands of large generative models. However, traditional on-chip control methods struggle with high power consumption and volatility. To overcome these challenges, phase-change materials (PCMs) offer high optical contrast and non-volatility, enhancing integration density and reducing power usage. This article discusses the performance and reversible control of PCMs and their integration with silicon photonics. By incorporating PCMs into in-memory optical computing chips, we achieved 4-bit storage and over 88% accuracy on the MNIST dataset, marking significant progress in next-generation high-performance computing.
Nonvolatile light-field manipulation via electrically-driven phase transition of chalcogenide phase change materials (PCMs) is regarded as one of the most powerful solutions to low-power-consumption and compact integrated reconfigurable photonics. However, before the breakthrough in large-scale integration approaches linked to wafer foundries, phase-change non-volatile reconfigurable photonics could hardly see their widespread practical applications. Here we demonstrate nonvolatile photonic devices fabricated by back-end-of-line (BOEL) integration of PCMs into the commercial silicon photonics platform. A narrow trench etched into the BOEL dielectric layer exposed the waveguide core and allowed for the direct deposition of various PCM films on the waveguide in the functional areas. Fine-tuning the nonvolatile phase transition of Sb2Se3 via a PIN microheater was verified by realizing the post-fabrication trimming of silicon photonic devices. Our work highlights a reliable platform for large-scale PCM-integrated photonics and validates its precise nonvolatile reconfigurability.
Optical neural networks (ONNs), enabling low latency and high parallel data processing without electromagnetic interference, have become a viable player for fast and energy-efficient processing and calculation to meet the increasing demand for hash rate. Photonic memories employing nonvolatile phase-change materials could achieve zero static power consumption, low thermal cross talk, large-scale, and high-energy-efficient photonic neural networks. Nevertheless, the switching speed and dynamic energy consumption of phase-change material-based photonic memories make them inapplicable for in situ training. Here, by integrating a patch of phase change thin film with a PIN-diode-embedded microring resonator, a bifunctional photonic memory enabling both 5-bit storage and nanoseconds volatile modulation was demonstrated. For the first time, a concept is presented for electrically programmable phase-change material-driven photonic memory integrated with nanosecond modulation to allow fast in situ training and zero static power consumption data processing in ONNs. ONNs with an optical convolution kernel constructed by our photonic memory theoretically achieved an accuracy of predictions higher than 95% when tested by the MNIST handwritten digit database. This provides a feasible solution to constructing large-scale nonvolatile ONNs with high-speed in situ training capability.
A new optical microscopy technique, termed high spatial and temporal resolution synthetic aperture phase microscopy (HISTR-SAPM), is proposed to improve the lateral resolution of wide-field coherent imaging. Under plane wave illumination, the resolution is increased by twofold to around 260 nm, while achieving millisecond-level temporal resolution. In HISTR-SAPM, digital micromirror devices are used to actively change the sample illumination beam angle at high speed with high stability. An off-axis interferometer is used to measure the sample scattered complex fields, which are then processed to reconstruct high-resolution phase images. Using HISTR-SAPM, we are able to map the height profiles of subwavelength photonic structures and resolve the period structures that have 198 nm linewidth and 132 nm gap (i.e., a full pitch of 330 nm). As the reconstruction averages out laser speckle noise while maintaining high temporal resolution, HISTR-SAPM further enables imaging and quantification of nanoscale dynamics of live cells, such as red blood cell membrane fluctuations and subcellular structure dynamics within nucleated cells. We envision that HISTR-SAPM will broadly benefit research in material science and biology.
New narrow-gap two-dimensional (2-D) semiconductors exemplified by black phosphorus and tellurene are promising material candidates for mid-IR optoelectronic devices. In particular, tellurene, atomically thin crystals of elemental tellurium, is an emerging narrow-gap 2-D semiconductor amenable to scalable solution-based synthesis and large-area deposition. It uniquely combines tunable bandgap energies, high carrier mobility, exceptionally large electro-optic activity, and superior chemical stability, making it a promising and versatile material platform for mid-infrared photonics. Here we discuss the design and experimental realization of integrated photonic devices based on tellurene and other 2-D semiconductors specifically for the mid-IR spectral regime based on a chalcogenide glass (ChG) photonic platform.
KEYWORDS: Spectrometers, Spectroscopes, Signal to noise ratio, Switches, Spectral resolution, Spectrum analysis, Waveguides, Fourier transforms, Mach-Zehnder interferometers, Chemical elements
On-chip spectrometers have recently emerged as a promising alternative to conventional benchtop instruments with apparent Size, Weight, and Power (SWaP) advantages for applications including spectroscopic sensing, optical network performance monitoring, RF spectrum analysis, optical coherence tomography, and hyperspectral imaging. Existing onchip spectrometer designs, however, are limited in spectral channel count and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Here we demonstrate a transformative on-chip digital Fourier transform (dFT) spectrometer that can acquire high-resolution spectra via time-domain modulation of a reconfigurable Mach-Zehnder interferometer. The device, fabricated and packaged using industry-standard silicon photonics technology, claims the multiplex advantage to dramatically boost SNR and unprecedented scalability capable of addressing exponentially increasing numbers of spectral channels. We further explored and implemented machine learning regularization techniques to spectrum reconstruction. Using an ‘elastic-D1’ regularized regression method that we developed, we achieved significant noise suppression for both broad (> 600 GHz) and narrow (< 25 GHz) spectral features, as well as spectral resolution enhancement beyond the classical Rayleigh criterion. The dFT architecture and spectrum reconstruction techniques demonstrated in this work will drive future work in on-chip optical spectroscopy and enable practical realizations of high-performance chip-scale spectrometers with large (> 1,000) spectral channel counts.
We present recent development on integrated flexible and stretchable photonic devices. Conventional photonic devices are fabricated on rigid semiconductor or dielectric substrates and are therefore inherently incompatible with soft biological tissues. Recently, we have developed a suite of active and passive photonic devices and systems integrated on plastic substrates which can be bent, twisted, and stretched without compromising their optical performance. Key innovations are monolithic multi-material integration and advanced micro-mechanical structures co-designed with photonic devices, which enables devices with extreme mechanical flexibility and excellent optical performance.
Two-dimensional (2-D) materials are of tremendous interest to silicon photonics given their singular optical characteristics spanning light emission, modulation, saturable absorption, and nonlinear optics. To harness their optical properties, these atomically thin materials are usually attached onto prefabricated devices via a transfer process. Here we present a new route for 2-D material integration with silicon photonics. Central to this approach is the use of chalcogenide glass, a multifunctional material which can be directly deposited and patterned on a wide variety of 2-D materials and can simultaneously function as the light guiding medium, a gate dielectric, and a passivation layer for 2-D materials. Besides achieving improved fabrication yield and throughput compared to the traditional transfer process, our technique also enables unconventional multilayer device geometries optimally designed for enhancing light-matter interactions in the 2-D layers. Capitalizing on this facile integration method, we demonstrate a series of high-performance glass-on-graphene devices including ultra-broadband on-chip polarizers, energy-efficient thermo-optic switches, as well as mid-infrared (mid-IR) waveguide-integrated photodetectors and modulators based on graphene and black phosphorus.
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is widely recognized as a gold standard technique for chemical analysis. Traditional IR spectroscopy relies on fragile bench-top instruments located in dedicated laboratory settings, and is thus not suitable for emerging field-deployed applications such as in-line industrial process control, environmental monitoring, and point-ofcare diagnosis. Recent strides in photonic integration technologies provide a promising route towards enabling miniaturized, rugged platforms for IR spectroscopic analysis. Chalcogenide glasses, the amorphous compounds containing S, Se or Te, have stand out as a promising material for infrared photonic integration given their broadband infrared transparency and compatibility with silicon photonic integration. In this paper, we discuss our recent work exploring integrated chalcogenide glass based photonic devices for IR spectroscopic chemical analysis, including on-chip cavityenhanced chemical sensing and monolithic integration of mid-IR waveguides with photodetectors.
Infrared (IR) spectroscopy is widely recognized as a gold standard technique for chemical and biological analysis. Traditional IR spectroscopy relies on fragile bench-top instruments located in dedicated laboratory settings, and is thus not suitable for emerging field-deployed applications such as in-line industrial process control, environmental monitoring, and point-of-care diagnosis. Recent strides in photonic integration technologies provide a promising route towards enabling miniaturized, rugged platforms for IR spectroscopic analysis. It is therefore attempting to simply replace the bulky discrete optical elements used in conventional IR spectroscopy with their on-chip counterparts. This size down-scaling approach, however, cripples the system performance as both the sensitivity of spectroscopic sensors and spectral resolution of spectrometers scale with optical path length. In light of this challenge, we will discuss two novel photonic device designs uniquely capable of reaping performance benefits from microphotonic scaling. We leverage strong optical and thermal confinement in judiciously designed micro-cavities to circumvent the thermal diffusion and optical diffraction limits in conventional photothermal sensors and achieve a record 104 photothermal sensitivity enhancement. In the second example, an on-chip spectrometer design with the Fellgett’s advantage is analyzed. The design enables sub-nm spectral resolution on a millimeter-sized, fully packaged chip without moving parts.
The mid-Infrared wavelength range (2-20 µm), so-called fingerprint region, contains the very sharp vibrational and rotational resonances of many chemical and biological substances. Thereby, on-chip absorption-spectrometry-based sensors operating in the mid-Infrared (mid-IR) have the potential to perform high-precision, label-free, real-time detection of multiple target molecules within a single sensor, which makes them an ideal technology for the implementation of lab-on-a-chip devices.
Benefiting from the great development realized in the telecom field, silicon photonics is poised to deliver ultra-compact efficient and cost-effective devices fabricated at mass scale. In addition, Si is transparent up to 8 µm wavelength, making it an ideal material for the implementation of high-performance mid-IR photonic circuits. The silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology, typically used in telecom applications, relies on silicon dioxide as bottom insulator. Unfortunately, silicon dioxide absorbs light beyond 3.6 µm, limiting the usability range of the SOI platform for the mid-IR. Silicon-on-sapphire (SOS) has been proposed as an alternative solution that extends the operability region up to 6 µm (sapphire absorption), while providing a high-index contrast. In this context, surface grating couplers have been proved as an efficient means of injecting and extracting light from mid-IR SOS circuits that obviate the need of cleaving sapphire. However, grating couplers typically have a reduced bandwidth, compared with facet coupling solutions such as inverse or sub-wavelength tapers. This feature limits their feasibility for absorption spectroscopy applications that may require monitoring wide wavelength ranges. Interestingly, sub-wavelength engineering can be used to substantially improve grating coupler bandwidth, as demonstrated in devices operating at telecom wavelengths.
Here, we report on the development of fiber-to-chip interconnects to ZrF4 optical fibers and integrated SOS circuits with 500 nm thick Si, operating around 3.8 µm wavelength. Results on facet coupling and sub-wavelength engineered grating coupler solutions in the mid-IR regime will be compared.
Conventional photonic integration technologies are inevitably substrate-dependent, as different substrate platforms stipulate vastly different device fabrication methods and processing compatibility requirements. Here we capitalize on the unique monolithic integration capacity of composition-engineered non-silicate glass materials (amorphous chalcogenides and transition metal oxides) to enable multifunctional, multi-layer photonic integration on virtually any technically important substrate platforms. We show that high-index glass film deposition and device fabrication can be performed at low temperatures (< 250 °C) without compromising their low loss characteristics, and is thus fully compatible with monolithic integration on a broad range of substrates including semiconductors, plastics, textiles, and metals. Application of the technology is highlighted through three examples: demonstration of high-performance mid-IR photonic sensors on fluoride crystals, direct fabrication of photonic structures on graphene, and 3-D photonic integration on flexible plastic substrates.
Mid-infrared (MIR, 2-6 μm wavelength) transparent metal oxides are attractive materials for planar integrated photonic devices for sensing applications. In this study, we present reactive sputtering deposited ZrO2-TiO2 (ZTO) thin films as a new material candidate for integrated MIR photonics. We demonstrate that amorphous ZTO thin films can be achieved with Ti concentration of 40 at.%. With increasing Ti concentration, the optical band gap decreases monotonically from 4.34 eV to 4.11 eV, while the index of refraction increases from 2.14 to 2.24 at 1 μm wavelength. MIR micro-disk resonators on MgO substrates are demonstrated using Ge23/Sb7S70/Zr0.6Ti0.4O2 strip-loaded waveguides with a loaded quality factor of ~11,000 at 5.2 μm wavelength. By comparing with a reference device of Ge23Sb7S70 resonator on MgO and simulating the optical confinement factors, the ZTO thin film loss is estimated to be below 10 dB/cm. Single mode shallow ridge waveguides with a ridge height of 400 nm and a slab height of 1.7 μm are also demonstrated using ZrO2 thin films on MgO substrates. The low loss, relatively high index of refraction, superior stability and proven CMOS compatibility of ZTO thin films make them highly attractive for MIR integrated photonics.
A high bandwidth density chip-to-chip optical interconnect architecture is analyzed. The interconnect design leverages
our recently developed flexible substrate integration technology to circumvent the optical alignment requirement during
packaging. Initial experimental results on fabrication and characterization of the flexible photonic platform are also
presented.
High-index-contrast optical devices form the backbone of densely integrated photonic circuits. While these devices are
traditionally fabricated using lithography and etching, their performance is often limited by defects and sidewall
roughness arising from fabrication imperfections. This paper reports a versatile, roll-to-roll and backend compatible
technique for the fabrication of high-performance, high-index-contrast photonic structures in composition-engineered
chalcogenide glass (ChG) thin films. Thin film ChG have emerged as important materials for photonic applications due
to their high refractive index, excellent transparency in the infrared and large Kerr non-linearity. Both thermally
evaporated and solution processed As-Se thin films are successfully employed to imprint waveguides and micro-ring
resonators with high replicability and low surface roughness (0.9 nm). The micro-ring resonators exhibit an ultra-high
quality-factor of 4 × 105 near 1550 nm wavelength, which represents the highest value reported in ChG micro-ring
resonators. Furthermore, sub-micron nanoimprint of ChG films on non-planar plastic substrates is demonstrated, which
establishes the method as a facile route for monolithic fabrication of high-index-contrast devices on a wide array of
unconventional substrates.
Chalcogenide glasses, namely the amorphous compounds containing sulfur, selenium, and/or tellurium, have emerged as a promising material candidate for mid-infrared integrated photonics given their wide optical transparency window, high linear and nonlinear indices, as well as their capacity for monolithic integration on a wide array of substrates. Exploiting these unique features of the material, we demonstrated high-index-contrast, waveguide-coupled As2Se3 chalcogenide glass resonators monolithically integrated on silicon with a high intrinsic quality factor of 2 × 105 at 5.2 micron wavelength, and what we believe to be the first waveguide photonic crystal cavity operating in the mid-infrared.
Chalcogenide glasses, namely the amorphous compounds containing sulfur, selenium, and/or tellurium, have emerged as a promising material candidate for integrated photonics given their wide infrared transparency window, low processing temperature, almost infinite capacity for composition alloying, as well as high linear and nonlinear indices. Here we present the fabrication and characterization of chalcogenide glass based photonic devices integrated on silicon as well as on flexible polymer substrates for mid-IR sensing, optical interconnect and nonlinear optics applications.
Chalcogenide glasses, namely the amorphous compounds containing sulfur, selenium, and/or tellurium, have emerged as
a promising material candidate for integrated photonics given their wide infrared transparency window, low processing
temperature, almost infinite capacity for composition alloying, as well as high linear and nonlinear indices. Here we
present the fabrication and characterization of chalcogenide glass based photonic devices integrated on silicon as well as
on flexible polymer substrates for sensing, optical interconnect and nonlinear optics applications.
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