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Monolithically Integrated C-Band Quantum Emitters on Foundry Silicon Photonics
Authors:
Robert M. Pettit,
Skylar Deckoff-Jones,
Angela Donis,
Ana Elias,
Jayson Briscoe,
Gerald Leake,
Daniel Coleman,
Michael Fanto,
Ananthesh Sundaresh,
Shobhit Gupta,
Manish Kumar Singh,
Sean E. Sullivan
Abstract:
Solid-state spin-based quantum systems have emerged as popular platforms for quantum networking applications due to their optical interfaces, their long-lived quantum memories, and their natural compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing. Photonic crystal cavities are often used to enhance radiative emission; however, fabrication of the necessary subwavelength cavities is typically limited to…
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Solid-state spin-based quantum systems have emerged as popular platforms for quantum networking applications due to their optical interfaces, their long-lived quantum memories, and their natural compatibility with semiconductor manufacturing. Photonic crystal cavities are often used to enhance radiative emission; however, fabrication of the necessary subwavelength cavities is typically limited to small batch electron beam lithography. In this work, we demonstrate high quality factor, small mode volume nanobeam cavities fabricated on a scalable silicon photonic foundry platform. The foundry fabricated cavities are then interfaced with single erbium ions through backend deposition of TiO2 thin films lightly doped with erbium. Single ion lifetime measurements indicate Purcell enhancement up to about 500, thereby demonstrating a route toward manufacturable deterministic single photon sources in the telecom C-band.
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Submitted 28 July, 2025; v1 submitted 30 April, 2025;
originally announced May 2025.
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Highly Uniform Thermally Undercut Silicon Photonic Devices in a 300 mm CMOS Foundry Process
Authors:
Robert Parsons,
Kaylx Jang,
Yuyang Wang,
Asher Novick,
A. Matthew Smith,
Christopher C. Tison,
Yonas Gebregiorgis,
Venkatesh Deenadayalan,
Matthew van Niekerk,
Lewis Carpenter,
Tat Ngai,
Gerald Leake,
Daniel Coleman,
Xiang Meng,
Stefan Preble,
Michael L. Fanto,
Keren Bergman,
Anthony Rizzo
Abstract:
Silicon photonic devices fundamental to high-density wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) optical links and photonic switching networks, such as resonant modulators and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), are highly sensitive to fabrication variations and operational temperature swings. However, thermal tuning to compensate for fabrication and operational temperature variations can result in pr…
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Silicon photonic devices fundamental to high-density wavelength-division multiplexed (DWDM) optical links and photonic switching networks, such as resonant modulators and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs), are highly sensitive to fabrication variations and operational temperature swings. However, thermal tuning to compensate for fabrication and operational temperature variations can result in prohibitive power consumption, challenging the scalability of energy-efficient photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In this work, we develop and demonstrate a wafer-scale thermal undercut process in a 300 mm complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) foundry that dramatically improves the thermal isolation of thermo-optic devices by selectively removing substrate material beneath the waveguides and resonators. This approach significantly reduces the power required for thermal tuning across multiple device architectures, achieving almost a 5$\times$ improvement in tuning efficiency in a state-of-the-art 4.5 $μ$m radius microdisk modulator and a 40$\times$ improvement in efficiency for a MZI phase shifter. To the best of the authors' knowledge, we demonstrate the first wafer-scale comparison of non-undercut and undercut silicon photonic devices using comprehensive wafer-scale measurements across 64 reticles of a 300 mm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. Further, we demonstrate a comprehensive wafer-scale analysis of the influence of undercut trench opening geometry on device tuning efficiency. Notably, we observe highly uniform performance across the full 300 mm wafer for multiple device types, emphasizing that our process can be scaled to large-scale photonic circuits with high yield. These results open new opportunities for large-scale integrated photonic circuits using thermo-optic devices, paving the way for scalable, low-power silicon photonic systems.
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Submitted 6 June, 2025; v1 submitted 11 March, 2025;
originally announced March 2025.
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Single-photon detectors on arbitrary photonic substrates
Authors:
Max Tao,
Hugo Larocque,
Samuel Gyger,
Marco Colangelo,
Owen Medeiros,
Ian Christen,
Hamed Sattari,
Gregory Choong,
Yves Petremand,
Ivan Prieto,
Yang Yu,
Stephan Steinhauer,
Gerald L. Leake,
Daniel J. Coleman,
Amir H. Ghadimi,
Michael L. Fanto,
Val Zwiller,
Dirk Englund,
Carlos Errando-Herranz
Abstract:
Detecting non-classical light is a central requirement for photonics-based quantum technologies. Unrivaled high efficiencies and low dark counts have positioned superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) as the leading detector technology for fiber and integrated photonic applications. However, a central challenge lies in their integration within photonic integrated circuits regardl…
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Detecting non-classical light is a central requirement for photonics-based quantum technologies. Unrivaled high efficiencies and low dark counts have positioned superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) as the leading detector technology for fiber and integrated photonic applications. However, a central challenge lies in their integration within photonic integrated circuits regardless of material platform or surface topography. Here, we introduce a method based on transfer printing that overcomes these constraints and allows for the integration of SNSPDs onto arbitrary photonic substrates. We prove this by integrating SNSPDs and showing through-waveguide single-photon detection in commercially manufactured silicon and lithium niobate on insulator integrated photonic circuits. Our method eliminates bottlenecks to the integration of high-quality single-photon detectors, turning them into a versatile and accessible building block for scalable quantum information processing.
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Submitted 12 September, 2024;
originally announced September 2024.
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Tunable quantum emitters on large-scale foundry silicon photonics
Authors:
Hugo Larocque,
Mustafa Atabey Buyukkaya,
Carlos Errando-Herranz,
Samuel Harper,
Jacques Carolan,
Chang-Min Lee,
Christopher J. K. Richardson,
Gerald L. Leake,
Daniel J. Coleman,
Michael L. Fanto,
Edo Waks,
Dirk Englund
Abstract:
Controlling large-scale many-body quantum systems at the level of single photons and single atomic systems is a central goal in quantum information science and technology. Intensive research and development has propelled foundry-based silicon-on-insulator photonic integrated circuits to a leading platform for large-scale optical control with individual mode programmability. However, integrating at…
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Controlling large-scale many-body quantum systems at the level of single photons and single atomic systems is a central goal in quantum information science and technology. Intensive research and development has propelled foundry-based silicon-on-insulator photonic integrated circuits to a leading platform for large-scale optical control with individual mode programmability. However, integrating atomic quantum systems with single-emitter tunability remains an open challenge. Here, we overcome this barrier through the hybrid integration of multiple InAs/InP microchiplets containing high-brightness infrared semiconductor quantum dot single photon emitters into advanced silicon-on-insulator photonic integrated circuits fabricated in a 300~mm foundry process. With this platform, we achieve single photon emission via resonance fluorescence and scalable emission wavelength tunability through an electrically controlled non-volatile memory. The combined control of photonic and quantum systems opens the door to programmable quantum information processors manufactured in leading semiconductor foundries.
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Submitted 29 June, 2023; v1 submitted 10 June, 2023;
originally announced June 2023.
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Electrically pumped quantum-dot lasers grown on 300 mm patterned Si photonic wafers
Authors:
Chen Shang,
Kaiyin Feng,
Eamonn T. Hughes,
Andrew Clark,
Mukul Debnath,
Rosalyn Koscica,
Gerald Leake,
Joshua Herman,
David Harame,
Peter Ludewig,
Yating Wan,
John E. Bowers
Abstract:
Monolithic integration of quantum dot (QD) gain materials onto Si photonic platforms via direct epitaxial growth is a promising solution for on-chip light sources. Recent developments have demonstrated superior device reliability in blanket hetero-epitaxy of III-V devices on Si at elevated temperatures. Yet, thick, defect management epi designs prevent vertical light coupling from the gain region…
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Monolithic integration of quantum dot (QD) gain materials onto Si photonic platforms via direct epitaxial growth is a promising solution for on-chip light sources. Recent developments have demonstrated superior device reliability in blanket hetero-epitaxy of III-V devices on Si at elevated temperatures. Yet, thick, defect management epi designs prevent vertical light coupling from the gain region to the Si-on-Insulator (SOI) waveguides. Here, we demonstrate the first electrically pumped QD lasers grown on a 300 mm patterned (001) Si wafer with a butt-coupled configuration by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). Unique growth and fabrication challenges imposed by the template architecture have been resolved, contributing to continuous wave lasing to 60 °C and a maximum double-side output power of 126.6 mW at 20 °C with a double-side wall plug efficiency of 8.6%. The potential for robust on-chip laser operation and efficient low-loss light coupling to Si photonic circuits makes this heteroepitaxial integration platform on Si promising for scalable and low-cost mass production.
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Submitted 2 June, 2022;
originally announced June 2022.
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Massively Scalable Wavelength Diverse Integrated Photonic Linear Neuron
Authors:
Matthew van Niekerk,
Anthony Rizzo,
Hector Rubio Rivera,
Gerald Leake,
Daniel Coleman,
Christopher Tison,
Michael Fanto,
Keren Bergman,
Stefan Preble
Abstract:
As computing resource demands continue to escalate in the face of big data, cloud-connectivity and the internet of things, it has become imperative to develop new low-power, scalable architectures. Neuromorphic photonics, or photonic neural networks, have become a feasible solution for the physical implementation of efficient algorithms directly on-chip. This application is primarily due to the li…
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As computing resource demands continue to escalate in the face of big data, cloud-connectivity and the internet of things, it has become imperative to develop new low-power, scalable architectures. Neuromorphic photonics, or photonic neural networks, have become a feasible solution for the physical implementation of efficient algorithms directly on-chip. This application is primarily due to the linear nature of light and the scalability of silicon photonics, specifically leveraging the wide-scale complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) manufacturing infrastructure used to fabricate microelectronics chips. Current neuromorphic photonic implementations stem from two paradigms: wavelength coherent and incoherent. Here, we introduce a novel architecture that supports coherent and incoherent operation to increase the capability and capacity of photonic neural networks with a dramatic reduction in footprint compared to previous demonstrations. As a proof-of-principle, we experimentally demonstrate simple addition and subtraction operations on a foundry-fabricated silicon photonic chip. Additionally, we experimentally validate an on-chip network to predict the logical 2-bit gates AND, OR, and XOR to accuracies of $96.8\%, 99\%,$ and $98.5\%$, respectively. This architecture is compatible with highly wavelength parallel sources, enabling massively scalable photonic neural networks.
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Submitted 25 August, 2022; v1 submitted 11 May, 2022;
originally announced May 2022.
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A full degree-of-freedom photonic crystal spatial light modulator
Authors:
Christopher L. Panuski,
Ian R. Christen,
Momchil Minkov,
Cole J. Brabec,
Sivan Trajtenberg-Mills,
Alexander D. Griffiths,
Jonathan J. D. McKendry,
Gerald L. Leake,
Daniel J. Coleman,
Cung Tran,
Jeffrey St Louis,
John Mucci,
Cameron Horvath,
Jocelyn N. Westwood-Bachman,
Stefan F. Preble,
Martin D. Dawson,
Michael J. Strain,
Michael L. Fanto,
Dirk R. Englund
Abstract:
Harnessing the full complexity of optical fields requires complete control of all degrees-of-freedom within a region of space and time -- an open goal for present-day spatial light modulators (SLMs), active metasurfaces, and optical phased arrays. Here, we solve this challenge with a programmable photonic crystal cavity array enabled by four key advances: (i) near-unity vertical coupling to high-f…
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Harnessing the full complexity of optical fields requires complete control of all degrees-of-freedom within a region of space and time -- an open goal for present-day spatial light modulators (SLMs), active metasurfaces, and optical phased arrays. Here, we solve this challenge with a programmable photonic crystal cavity array enabled by four key advances: (i) near-unity vertical coupling to high-finesse microcavities through inverse design, (ii) scalable fabrication by optimized, 300 mm full-wafer processing, (iii) picometer-precision resonance alignment using automated, closed-loop "holographic trimming", and (iv) out-of-plane cavity control via a high-speed micro-LED array. Combining each, we demonstrate near-complete spatiotemporal control of a 64-resonator, two-dimensional SLM with nanosecond- and femtojoule-order switching. Simultaneously operating wavelength-scale modes near the space- and time-bandwidth limits, this work opens a new regime of programmability at the fundamental limits of multimode optical control.
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Submitted 21 April, 2022;
originally announced April 2022.
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Two-dimensional extreme skin depth engineering for CMOS photonics
Authors:
Matthew van Niekerk,
Saman Jahani,
Justin Bickford,
Pak Cho,
Stephen Anderson,
Gerald Leake,
Daniel Coleman,
Michael L. Fanto,
Christopher C. Tison,
Gregory A. Howland,
Zubin Jacob,
Stefan F. Preble
Abstract:
Extreme skin depth engineering (e-skid) can be applied to integrated photonics to manipulate the evanescent field of a waveguide. Here we demonstrate that e-skid can be implemented in two directions in order to deterministically engineer the evanescent wave allowing for dense integration with enhanced functionalities. In particular, by increasing the skin depth, we enable the creation of large gap…
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Extreme skin depth engineering (e-skid) can be applied to integrated photonics to manipulate the evanescent field of a waveguide. Here we demonstrate that e-skid can be implemented in two directions in order to deterministically engineer the evanescent wave allowing for dense integration with enhanced functionalities. In particular, by increasing the skin depth, we enable the creation of large gap, bendless directional couplers with large operational bandwidth. Here we experimentally validate two-dimensional e-skid for integrated photonics in a CMOS photonics foundry and demonstrate strong coupling with a gap of 1.44 μm.
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Submitted 9 December, 2020; v1 submitted 28 May, 2020;
originally announced May 2020.