Volume 12, Issue 2

Silicon photonics has gained great success mainly due to the promise of realizing compact devices in high volume through the low-cost foundry model. It is burgeoning from laboratory research into commercial production endeavors such as datacom and telecom. However, it is unsuitable for some emerging applications which require coverage across the visible or mid infrared (mid-IR) wavelength bands. It is desirable to introduce other wideband materials through heterogeneous integration, while keeping the integration compatible with wafer-scale fabrication processes on silicon substrates. We discuss the properties of silicon-family materials including silicon, silicon nitride, and silica, and other non-group IV materials such as metal oxide, tantalum pentoxide, lithium niobate, aluminum nitride, gallium nitride, barium titanate, piezoelectric lead zirconate titanate, and 2D materials. Typical examples of devices using these materials on silicon platform are provided. We then introduce a general fabrication method and low-loss process treatment for photonic devices on the silicon platform. From an applications viewpoint, we focus on three new areas requiring integration: sensing, optical comb generation, and quantum information processing. Finally, we conclude with perspectives on how new materials and integration methods can address previously unattainable wavelength bands while maintaining the advantages of silicon, thus showing great potential for future widespread applications.

Tunable semiconductor lasers have many important applications such as wavelength division multiplexing, light detection and ranging, and gas detection. The increased interest in silicon photonics has led to the rapid development of miniaturized on-chip tunable semiconductor lasers. However, silicon has poor light-emitting properties. Therefore, realizing high-performance tunable semiconductor lasers requires the integration of light sources with silicon. In this study, we review silicon-based light source integration methods and the development of silicon-based integrated tunable semiconductor lasers. Considering that narrow-linewidth performance greatly expands the applications of tunable semiconductor lasers, methods for reducing the linewidth of tunable lasers are summarized. Finally, the development trends and prospects for silicon-based integrated light sources and silicon-based integrated tunable lasers are analyzed and discussed.

In this work, scalable fabrication of self-assembled GeSn vertical nanowires (NWs) based on rapid thermal annealing (RTA) and inductively coupled-plasma (ICP) dry etching was proposed. After thermal treatment of molecular-beam-epitaxy-grown GeSn, self-assembled Sn nanodots (NDs) were formed on surface and the spontaneous emission from GeSn direct band was enhanced by ∼5-fold. Employing the self-assembled Sn NDs as template, vertical GeSn NWs with a diameter of 25 ± 6 nm and a density of 2.8 × 10 9  cm −2 were obtained by Cl-based ICP dry etching technique. A prototype GeSn NW photodetector (PD) with rapid switching ability was demonstrated and the optoelectronic performance of Ge NW PD was systematically studied. The GeSn NW PD exhibited an ultralow dark current density of ∼33 nA/cm 2 with a responsivity of 0.245 A/W and a high specific detectivity of 2.40 × 10 12  cm Hz 1/2  W −1 at 1550 nm under −1 V at 77 K. The results prove that this method is prospective for low-cost and scalable fabrication of GeSn NWs, which are promising for near infrared or short wavelength infrared nanophotonic devices.

Integration of devices generating non-classical states (such as entanglement) into photonic circuits is one of the major goals in achieving integrated quantum circuits (IQCs). This is demonstrated successfully in recent decades. Controlling the non-classicality generation in these micron-scale devices is also crucial for the robust operation of the IQCs. Here, we propose a micron-scale quantum entanglement device whose nonlinearity (so the generated non-classicality) can be tuned by several orders of magnitude via an applied voltage without altering the linear response. Quantum emitters (QEs), whose level-spacing can be tuned by voltage, are embedded into the hotspot of a metal nanostructure (MNS). QE-MNS coupling introduces a Fano resonance in the “nonlinear response”. Nonlinearity, already enhanced extremely due to localization, can be controlled by the QEs’ level-spacing. Nonlinearity can either be suppressed or be further enhanced by several orders. Fano resonance takes place in a relatively narrow frequency window so that ∼meV voltage-tunability for QEs becomes sufficient for a continuous turning on/off of the non-classicality. This provides as much as 5 orders of magnitude modulation depths.

Active metasurfaces designed to operate at optical frequencies are flat optical elements that can dynamic, subwavelength-scale wavefront control of reflected or transmitted light. The practical and fundamental power-handling limits of active metasurfaces at high pulse energies and high average powers determine the potential applications for these emerging photonic components. Here, we investigate thermal performance limits of reflective gate-tunable conducting oxide metasurfaces illuminated with high power density laser beams, for both continuous wave (CW) and pulsed laser illumination. Our gate-tunable metasurfaces use indium tin oxide (ITO) as an active material, which undergoes an epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) transition under applied electrical bias. We experimentally show that under CW illumination, there is no significant change in the electrically tunable metasurface optical response for high irradiances ranging from 1.6 kW/cm 2 to 9.1 kW/cm 2 when the illuminating laser beam diameter is 7 μm. Even under an applied bias, when over 60% of the incoming light is absorbed in a 1 nm–thick charge accumulation layer within ITO, the local temperature rise in the metasurface is modest, supporting its robustness for high-power applications. Additionally, we theoretically show that in the ENZ regime, the metasurface reflectance can be increased by a factor of 10 by replacing the active ITO layer with cadmium oxide (CdO). Thus conducting oxide metasurfaces can tolerate the power densities needed in higher power applications, including free space optical communications, to light detection and ranging (LiDAR), as well as laser-based additive manufacturing.

We report a coherent layer-by-layer build-up of high-order harmonic generation (HHG) in artificially stacked transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDC) crystals in their various stacking configurations. In the experiments, millimeter-sized single crystalline monolayers are synthesized using the gold foil-exfoliation method, followed by artificially stacking on a transparent substrate. High-order harmonics up to the 19th order are generated by the interaction with a mid-infrared (MIR) driving laser. We find that the generation is sensitive to both the number of layers and their relative orientation. For AAAA stacking configuration, both odd- and even-orders exhibit a quadratic increase in intensity as a function of the number of layers, which is a signature of constructive interference of high-harmonic emission from successive layers. Particularly, we observe some deviations from this scaling at photon energies above the bandgap, which is explained by self-absorption effects. For AB and ABAB stacking, even-order harmonics remain below the detection level, consistent with the presence of inversion symmetry. Our study confirms our capability of producing nonperturbative high-order harmonics from stacked layered materials subjected to intense MIR fields without damaging samples. Our results have implications for optimizing solid-state HHG sources at the nanoscale and developing high-harmonics as an ultrafast probe of artificially stacked layered materials. Because the HHG process is a strong-field driven process, it has the potential to probe high-momentum and energy states in the bandstructure combined with atomic-scale sensitivity in real space, making it an attractive probe of novel material structures such as the Moiré pattern.

Fundamental effects in nanophotonic resonance systems focused on singular states and their properties are presented. Strongly related to lattice geometry and material composition, there appear resonant bright channels and non-resonant dark channels in the spectra. The bright state corresponds to high reflectivity guided-mode resonance (GMR) whereas the dark channel represents a bound state in the continuum (BIC). Even in simple systems, singular states with tunable bandwidth appear as isolated spectral lines that are widely separated from other resonance features. Under moderate lattice modulation, there ensues leaky-band metamorphosis, merging modal bands and resulting in offset dark states and reflective BICs along with transmissive BICs within a high-reflectance wideband. Rytov-type effective medium theory (EMT) is shown to be a powerful means to describe, formulate, and understand the collective GMR/BIC fundamentals in resonant photonic systems. Particularly, the discarded Rytov analytical solution for asymmetric fields is shown here to predict the dark BIC states essentially exactly for considerable modulation levels. The propagation constant of an equivalent EMT homogeneous film provides a quantitative evaluation of the eminent, oft-cited embedded BIC eigenvalue. The work concludes with experimental verification of key effects.

A growing class of nonlinear materials employ the localized surface plasmonic resonance (LSPR) of nanoparticles to enhance harmonic generation. Material systems containing harmonically coupled metallic and semiconductor plasmonic nanoparticles have been shown to further increase performance. Here, we explore the effect of dual plasmonic interactions in bilayer CuS and Au nanoparticle films on third harmonic generation (THG). Detuning the CuS LSPR away from the excitation frequency changes the dominant upconversion pathway from THG to multiple photon photoluminescence (MPPL). Changing the size of the Au nanoparticle red shifts the LSPR from the second harmonic of the pump frequency and also eliminates the enhancement effect. When both LSPRs satisfy the harmonic condition, simultaneous excitation of CuS-Au nanoparticle films at the resonant frequency of each nanoparticle species enhances the generation of third harmonic light by sum-frequency generation, suggesting that the enhancement of THG in dually plasmonic nanoparticle films is the result of a cascaded nonlinear mechanism. An analytic model of the interaction between the plasmonic nanoparticles due to incoherent dipolar interactions is also presented. Understanding these processes opens a pathway for developing ultrafast, high-efficiency upconversion thin-film devices by clarifying the conditions that efficiently produce third harmonic generation without background MPPL or additional harmonics.

Glasses-free three-dimensional (3D) display has attracted wide interest for providing stereoscopic virtual contents with depth cues. However, how to achieve high spatial and angular resolution while keeping ultrawide field of view (FOV) remains a significant challenge in 3D display. Here, we propose a light field 3D display with space-variant resolution for non-uniform distribution of information and energy. The spatial resolution of each view is modulated according to watching habit. A large-scale combination of pixelated 1D and 2D metagratings is used to manipulate dot and horizontal line views. With the joint modulation of pixel density and view arrangement, the information density and illuminance of high-demand views are at most 5.6 times and 16 times that of low-demand views, respectively. Furthermore, a full-color and video rate light field 3D display with non-uniform information distribution is demonstrated. The prototype provides 3D images with a high spatial resolution of 119.6 pixels per inch and a high angular resolution of 0.25 views per degree in the high-demand views. An ultrawide viewing angle of 140° is also provided. The proposed light field 3D display does not require ultrahigh-resolution display panels and has form factors of thin and light. Thus, it has the potential to be used in portable electronics, window display, exhibition display, as well as tabletop display.

Spatial visualization of mode distribution of light scattering from plasmonic nanostructures is of vital importance for understanding the scattering mechanism and applications based on these plasmonic nanostructures. A long unanswered question in how the spatial information of scattered light from a single plasmonic nanostructure can be recovered in the far-field, under the constraints of the diffraction limit of the detection or imaging optical system. In this paper, we reported a theoretical model on retrieving local spatial information of scattered light by plasmonic nanostructures in a far-field optical imaging system. In the far-field parametric sin  δ images, singularity points corresponding to near-field hot spots of the edge mode and the gap mode were resolved for gold ring and split rings with subwavelength diameters and feature sizes. The experimental results were verified with Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) simulation in the near-field and far-field, for the edge mode and the gap mode at 566 nm and 534 nm, respectively. In sin  δ image of split-ring, two singularity points associated with near-field hot spots were visualized and resolved with the characteristic size of 90 and 100 nm, which is far below the diffraction limit. The reported results indicate the feasibility of characterizing the spatial distribution of scattering light in the far-field and with sub-wavelength resolution for single plasmonic nanostructures with sub-wavelength feature sizes.

Light-harvesting complexes in natural photosynthetic systems, such as those in purple bacteria, consist of photo-reactive chromophores embedded in densely packed “antenna” systems organized in well-defined nanostructures. In the case of purple bacteria, the chromophore antennas are composed of natural J-aggregates such as bacteriochlorophylls and carotenoids. Inspired by the molecular composition of such biological systems, we create a library of organic materials composed of densely packed J-aggregates in a polymeric matrix, in which the matrix mimics the optical role of a protein scaffold. This library of organic materials shows polaritonic properties which can be tuned from the visible to the infrared by choice of the model molecule. Inspired by the molecular architecture of the light-harvesting complexes of Rhodospirillum molischianum bacteria, we study the light–matter interactions of J-aggregate-based nanorings with similar dimensions to the analogous natural nanoscale architectures. Electromagnetic simulations show that these nanorings of J-aggregates can act as resonators, with subwavelength confinement of light while concentrating the electric field in specific regions. These results open the door to bio-inspired building blocks for metamaterials from visible to infrared in an all-organic platform, while offering a new perspective on light–matter interactions at the nanoscale in densely packed organic matter in biological organisms including photosynthetic organelles.

Photonics inverse design relies on human experts to search for a design topology that satisfies certain optical specifications with their experience and intuitions, which is relatively labor-intensive, slow, and sub-optimal. Machine learning has emerged as a powerful tool to automate this inverse design process. However, supervised or semi-supervised deep learning is unsuitable for this task due to: (1) a severe shortage of available training data due to the high computational complexity of physics-based simulations along with a lack of open-source datasets and/or the need for a pre-trained neural network model; (2) the issue of one-to-many mapping or non-unique solutions; and (3) the inability to perform optimization of the photonic structure beyond inverse designing. Reinforcement Learning (RL) has the potential to overcome the above three challenges. Here, we propose Learning to Design Optical-Resonators (L2DO) to leverage RL that learns to autonomously inverse design nanophotonic laser cavities without any prior knowledge while retrieving unique design solutions. L2DO incorporates two different algorithms – Deep Q-learning and Proximal Policy Optimization. We evaluate L2DO on two laser cavities: a long photonic crystal (PC) nanobeam and a PC nanobeam with an L3 cavity, both popular structures for semiconductor lasers. Trained for less than 152 hours on limited hardware resources, L2DO has improved state-of-the-art results in the literature by over 2 orders of magnitude and obtained 10 times better performance than a human expert working the same task for over a month. L2DO first learned to meet the required maxima of Q -factors (>50 million) and then proceeded to optimize some additional good-to-have features (e.g., resonance frequency, modal volume). Compared with iterative human designs and inverse design via supervised learning, L2DO can achieve over two orders of magnitude higher sample-efficiency without suffering from the three issues above. This work confirms the potential of deep RL algorithms to surpass human designs and marks a solid step towards a fully automated AI framework for photonics inverse design.