Integrated electro-optics on thin-film lithium niobate

By Yaowen Hu, Di Zhu, Shengyuan Lu, Xinrui Zhu, Yunxiang Song, Dylan Renaud, D. Assumpcao, Rebecca Cheng, CJ Xin, Matthew Yeh and 6 more. Nature Reviews Physics, 2024

135 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Electro-optics bridges electronics and photonics and serves as a foundation for a wide array of applications from communications and computing to sensing and quantum information. Integrated electro-optic approaches, in particular, enable essential electronic high-speed control for photonics while offering photonic parallelism for electronics. Recent developments in thin-film lithium niobate photonics have advanced its use for electro-optics. This technology offers not only the necessary strong electro-optic coupling but also ultralow optical loss and high microwave bandwidth. Its tight field confinement and compatibility with established nanofabrication techniques allow for excellent reconfigurability and scalability, aiding the creation of devices and systems that were deemed nearly impossible in bulk systems. Building on this platform, various new electro-optic devices1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15–16 have emerged, which surpass the current state of the art1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8–9,12, 13, 14, 15–16 and introduce functionalities that previously did not exist3,10,11. Thin-film lithium niobate provides a unique platform to explore various areas of physics, including photonic non-Hermitian synthetic dimensions17, 18–19, active topological physics20,21 and quantum electro-optics15,22, 23–24. In this Review, we present the fundamental principles of electro-optics, drawing connections between fundamental science and state-of-the-art technology. We discuss the accomplishments and prospects of integrated electro-optics enabled by the thin-film lithium niobate platform. The strong electro-optic interaction, low optical loss and high microwave bandwidth of thin-film lithium niobate have enabled applications from computing to quantum information. This Review explores the fundamental principles, recent advances and the future potential of integrated lithium niobate technologies. As an integrated electro-optic platform, thin-film lithium niobate enables fully integrated electronic–photonic circuits, combining the high parallelism and low latency of photonics with the high-speed control and strong nonlinearity of electronics. The key advantages of the thin-film lithium niobate platform include strong electro-optic interaction, low optical loss, high microwave bandwidth and scalable reconfigurability. Electro-optic modulation mediates interactions between different modes by adding or removing a microwave photon to or from an optical photon. Electro-optic interactions are governed by energy conservation, phase matching, and selection rules, with the interaction formalism varying across different modulation regimes. Thin-film lithium niobate uniquely integrates χ2,χ3\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\chi }^{\left(2\right)},{\chi }^{\left(3\right)}$$\end{document} and electro-optic effects, which provides opportunities to explore complex nonlinear dynamics. As an integrated electro-optic platform, thin-film lithium niobate enables fully integrated electronic–photonic circuits, combining the high parallelism and low latency of photonics with the high-speed control and strong nonlinearity of electronics. The key advantages of the thin-film lithium niobate platform include strong electro-optic interaction, low optical loss, high microwave bandwidth and scalable reconfigurability. Electro-optic modulation mediates interactions between different modes by adding or removing a microwave photon to or from an optical photon. Electro-optic interactions are governed by energy conservation, phase matching, and selection rules, with the interaction formalism varying across different modulation regimes. Thin-film lithium niobate uniquely integrates χ2,χ3\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \usepackage{amsmath} \usepackage{wasysym} \usepackage{amsfonts} \usepackage{amssymb} \usepackage{amsbsy} \usepackage{mathrsfs} \usepackage{upgreek} \setlength{\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \begin{document}$${\chi }^{\left(2\right)},{\chi }^{\left(3\right)}$$\end{document} and electro-optic effects, which provides opportunities to explore complex nonlinear dynamics.

Subfields: Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b27f8939e31fc2deb4f4e5f995a23cbf36ecda54