High-speed programmable photonic circuits in a cryogenically compatible, visible-near-infrared 200 mm CMOS architecture

• Main Authors: Dong, Mark (Author), Clark, Genevieve (Author), Leenheer, Andrew J (Author), Zimmermann, Matthew (Author), Dominguez, Daniel (Author), Menssen, Adrian J (Author), Heim, David (Author), Gilbert, Gerald (Author), Englund, Dirk (Author), Eichenfield, Matt (Author)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer Science and Business Media LLC, 2022-07-25T17:20:59Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

 <jats:title>Abstract</jats:title><jats:p>Recent advances in photonic integrated circuits have enabled a new generation of programmable Mach-Zehnder meshes (MZMs) realized by using cascaded Mach-Zehnder interferometers capable of universal linear-optical transformations on <jats:italic>N</jats:italic> input/output optical modes. MZMs serve critical functions in photonic quantum information processing, quantum-enhanced sensor networks, machine learning and other applications. However, MZM implementations reported to date rely on thermo-optic phase shifters, which limit applications due to slow response times and high power consumption. Here we introduce a large-scale MZM platform made in a 200 mm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor foundry, which uses aluminium nitride piezo-optomechanical actuators coupled to silicon nitride waveguides, enabling low-loss propagation with phase modulation at greater than 100 MHz in the visible-near-infrared wavelengths. Moreover, the vanishingly low hold-power consumption of the piezo-actuators enables these photonic integrated circuits to operate at cryogenic temperatures, paving the way for a fully integrated device architecture for a range of quantum applications.</jats:p>