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A ferroelectric multilevel non-volatile photonic phase shifter

Nature Photonics volume 16, pages 491–497 (2022)Cite this article

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Abstract

A novel class of programmable integrated photonic circuits has emerged over the past years, strongly driven by approaches to tackle unsolved computing problems in the optical domain. Photonic neuromorphic and quantum computing are examples of optical systems implemented in complex photonic circuits, which are reconfigured before and during operation. However, a key building block to enable efficient reconfigurable optical network architectures is still missing: a non-volatile optical phase shifter. Here we demonstrate such an element—compatible with silicon photonics—based on the monolithic integration of BaTiO3 thin films with silicon waveguides. By manipulating ferroelectric domains in BaTiO3 with electrical control signals, we achieve analogue and non-volatile optical phase tuning with no absorption changes. We demonstrate an eight-level long-term-stable photonic device with non-destructive optical readout and switching energy as low as 4.6 pJ. With our results, an analogue non-volatile photonic element is added to the integrated photonics toolbox, enabling a new generation of power-efficient programmable photonic circuits.

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Fig. 1: Device geomerty, cross-section and general concept.
Fig. 2: The effect of pulse parameters on controlling the non-volatile photonic state.
Fig. 3: Domain dynamics.
Fig. 4: Characteristics of the device for non-volatile applications.

Data availability

The data analysis to support the plots in this Article are explained in the Supplementary Information. Raw data are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work received funding from the European Commission under grant agreement no. H2020-ICT-2017-1-780997 (plaCMOS) to F.E., H.S., B.J.O., J.F. and S.A., nos. H2020-ICT-2019-2-871330 (Neoteric) and H2020-ICT-2019-2-871658 (Nebula) to B.J.O., and no. H2020-ICT-2019-2-871391 (PlasmoniAC) to D.C. Support from the National Science Foundation under grant no. IRES-1358111 and financial support by Armasuisse Science and Technology to J.G.-K. J.G.-K. acknowledges academic support from P. Hoffmann.

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Author notes

  1. David Stark

    Present address: Institute for Quantum Electronics, Department of Physics, ETH Zürich, Zürich, Switzerland

Authors and Affiliations

  1. IBM Research−Europe, Rüschlikon, Switzerland

    Jacqueline Geler-Kremer, Felix Eltes, Pascal Stark, David Stark, Daniele Caimi, Heinz Siegwart, Bert Jan Offrein, Jean Fompeyrine & Stefan Abel

  2. Department of Physics, The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, USA

    Jacqueline Geler-Kremer

  3. Empa, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, Thun, Switzerland

    Jacqueline Geler-Kremer

  4. Lumiphase AG, Kilchberg, Switzerland

    Jacqueline Geler-Kremer, Felix Eltes, Pascal Stark, Jean Fompeyrine & Stefan Abel

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Contributions

J.G.-K. performed electro-optical measurements with the support of S.A. and F.E.. D.S. developed the basis code for running the experiments. F.E., S.A. and J.F. fabricated and structurally characterized the epitaxial BTO and STO layers. S.A., D.C. and F.E. fabricated the devices. J.G.-K performed data analysis with the support of S.A., F.E. and P.S. J.G.-K., F.E., P.S. and S.A. wrote the manuscript with the support of all authors. S.A. and J.F. defined the concept of non-volatile optical switching. All authors discussed the results.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jacqueline Geler-Kremer.

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Competing interests

F.E., J.F. and S.A. are involved in commercially developing barium titanate photonic technologies at Lumiphase AG.

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Nature Photonics thanks José Capmany and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Notes 1–15 and Figs. 1–12.

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Geler-Kremer, J., Eltes, F., Stark, P. et al. A ferroelectric multilevel non-volatile photonic phase shifter. Nat. Photon. 16, 491–497 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-022-01003-0

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