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We report on the development and fabrication of a 9-channel coarse wavelength-division multiplexing for telecommunication wavelengths (1550 nm) using anti-reflection contra-directional couplers, based on silicon nitride (Si3N4) rib waveguide. The transmitted and reflected spectrum in each channel of the demultiplexer were measured. The average full width at half maximum of the transmitted (reflected) spectra is about 3 nm.

Here we experimentally studied dependence of a focusing grating coupler efficiency versus taper length and angle on silicon nitride platform. As a result, we obtained a dependence for the efficiency of a focusing grating coupler on the parameters of the taper length and angle.

Here we show our latest progress in the field of a single-photon spectrometer for the visible and infrared wavelengths ranges implementation. We consider three different on-chip approaches: a coherent spectrometer with a low power of the heterodyne, a coherent spectrometer with a high power of the heterodyne, and an eight-channel single-photon spectrometer for direct detection. Along with high efficiency, spectrometers show high detection efficiency and temporal resolution through the use of waveguide integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors

We modeled and fabricated integrated optical Bragg waveguides on a silicon nitride (Si3N4) platform. These waveguides would serve as efficient notch-filters with the desired characteristics. Transmission spectra of the fabricated integrated notch filters have been measured and attenuation at the desired wavelength of 1550 nm down to -43 dB was observed. Performance of the filters has been studied depending on different parameters, such as pitch, filling factor, and height of teeth of the Bragg grating.

Strongly interacting atom-cavity systems within a network with many nodes constitute a possible realization for a quantum internet which allows for quantum communication and computation on the same platform. To implement such large-scale quantum networks, nanophotonic resonators are promising candidates because they can be scalably fabricated and interconnected with waveguides and optical fibers. By integrating arrays of ring resonators into a vapor cell we show that thermal rubidium atoms above room temperature can be coupled to photonic cavities as building blocks for chip-scale hybrid circuits. Although strong coupling is not yet achieved in this first realization, our approach provides a key step towards miniaturization and scalability of atom-cavity systems., Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures

By cascading compact and low-loss Mach–Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) embedded within nanophotonic circuits we realize thermo-optically tunable optical filters for the visible wavelength range. Through phase tuning in either arm of the MZI, the filter response with maximum extinction can be shifted beyond one free-spectral range with low electrical power consumption. The working wavelength of our device is aligned with the emission wavelength of the silicon vacancy color center in diamond around 740 nm where we realize a filter depth beyond 36.5 dB. Our approach allows for efficient isolation of the emitted signal intensity in future hybrid nanodiamond-nanophotonic circuits.

Silicon photonics has offered a versatile platform for the recent development of integrated optomechanical circuits. However, silicon is limited to wavelengths above 1100 nm and does not allow device operation in the visible spectrum range where low noise lasers are conveniently available. The narrow band gap of silicon also makes silicon optomechanical devices susceptible to strong two-photon absorption and free carrier absorption, which often introduce strong thermal effect that limit the devices' stability and cooling performance. Further, silicon also does not provide the desired lowest order optical nonlinearity for interfacing with other active electrical components on a chip. On the other hand, aluminum nitride (AlN) is a wideband semiconductor widely used in micromechanical resonators due to its low mechanical loss and high electromechanical coupling strength. Here we report the development of AlN-on-silicon platform for low loss, wideband optical guiding, as well as its use for achieving simultaneous high optical quality and mechanical quality optomechanical devices. Exploiting AlN's inherent second order nonlinearity we further demonstrate electro-optic modulation and efficient second-harmonic generation in AlN photonic circuits. Our results suggest that low cost AlN-on-silicon photonic circuits are excellent substitutes for CMOS-compatible photonic circuits for building new functional optomechanical devices that are free from carrier effects.

We propose a concept for realizing large area nanophotonic circuits in a silicon nitride membrane. Light is coupled into the membrane using a novel metallic photonic crystal grating coupler. A coupling loss of 5.5 dB is predicted for TE polarized light at 1550 nm. Waveguiding at telecoms wavelengths is achieved by using low loss photonic crystal defect waveguides. The propagation losses of the photonic crystal waveguides are estimated at 8.6 dB mm−1, comparable to early silicon photonic crystal waveguides. Using the proposed approach, photonic circuits can be fabricated using a single lithography and etching step. Thus the design scheme shows a route to low-cost fabrication.

We present a comparative analysis of the finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD) and the discontinuous Galerkin time-domain (DGTD) method for the simulation of integrated optical microresonators. It is found that FDTD suffers from phase errors and is limited by the staircasing approximation. A further restriction stems from only second-order accuracy which limits the geometrical problem size that can be analysed with given computational hardware. Particularly for simulations of high- Q optical resonators, those problems prevent sufficient convergence with reasonable grid spacing. The DGTD method, on the other hand, allows for the approximation of curved surfaces with high accuracy using triangular elements. Combined with the exponential convergence, the DGTD approach outperforms the FDTD method and is thus a suitable candidate for large-scale simulations.