Recent developments in chip-based nonlinear photonics offer the tantalizing prospect of realizing many applications that can use optical frequency comb devices that have form factors smaller than 1 cm3 and that require less than 1 W of power. A key feature that enables such technology is the tight confinement of light due to the high refractive index contrast between the core and the cladding. This simultaneously produces high optical nonlinearities and allows for dispersion engineering to realize and phase match parametric nonlinear processes with laser-pointer powers across large spectral bandwidths. In this Review, we summarize the developments, applications and underlying physics of optical frequency comb generation in photonic-chip waveguides via supercontinuum generation and in microresonators via Kerr-comb generation that enable comb technology from the near-ultraviolet to the mid-infrared regime. This Review discusses the developments and applications of on-chip optical frequency comb generation based on two concepts—supercontinuum generation in photonic-chip waveguides and Kerr-comb generation in microresonators.

Photonic-chip-based frequency combs

Quantum technologies comprise an emerging class of devices capable of controlling superposition and entanglement of quantum states of light or matter, to realize fundamental performance advantages over ordinary classical machines. The technology of integrated quantum photonics has enabled the generation, processing and detection of quantum states of light at a steadily increasing scale and level of complexity, progressing from few-component circuitry occupying centimetre-scale footprints and operating on two photons, to programmable devices approaching 1,000 components occupying millimetre-scale footprints with integrated generation of multiphoton states. This Review summarizes the advances in integrated photonic quantum technologies and its demonstrated applications, including quantum communications, simulations of quantum chemical and physical systems, sampling algorithms, and linear-optic quantum information processing. This Review covers recent progress in integrated quantum photonics (IQP) technologies and their applications. The challenges and opportunities of realizing large-scale, monolithic IQP circuits for future quantum applications are discussed.

Integrated photonic quantum technologies

Non-magnetic non-reciprocal transparency and amplification is experimentally achieved by optomechanics using a whispering-gallery microresonator. The idea may lead to integrated all-optical isolators or non-reciprocal phase shifters.

Experimental realization of optomechanically induced non-reciprocity

We demonstrate broadband frequency comb generation in the mid-infrared (MIR) from 2.3 to 3.5 μm in a Si(3)N(4) microresonator. We engineer the dispersion of the structure in the MIR using a Sellmeier equation we derive from experimental measurements performed on Si(3)N(4) films from the UV to the IR. We use deposition-anneal cycling to decrease absorption losses due to vibrational transitions in the MIR and achieve a Q-factor of 1.0×10(6). To our knowledge, this is the highest Q reported in this wavelength range for any on-chip resonator.

Broadband mid-infrared frequency comb generation in a Si(3)N(4) microresonator.

Generations of technologies with fundamentally new information processing capabilities will emerge if microscopic physical systems can be controlled to encode, transmit, and process quantum information, at scale and with high fidelity. In the decade after its 2008 inception, the technology of integrated quantum photonics enabled the generation, processing, and detection of quantum states of light, at a steadily increasing scale and level of complexity. Using both established and advanced fabrication techniques, the field progressed from the demonstrations of fixed circuits comprising few components and operating on two photons, to programmable circuitry approaching 1000 components with integrated generation of multi-photon states. A continuation in this trend over the next decade would usher in a versatile platform for future quantum technologies. This Review summarises the advances in integrated photonic quantum technologies (materials, devices, and functionality), and its demonstrated on-chip applications including secure quantum communications, simulations of quantum physical and chemical systems, Boson sampling, and linear-optic quantum information processing.

Integrated Photonic Quantum Technologies

Single-photon counters are single-pixel binary devices that click upon the absorption of a photon but obscure its spectral information, whereas resolving the colour of detected photons has been in critical demand for frontier astronomical observation, spectroscopic imaging and wavelength division multiplexed quantum communications. Current implementations of single-photon spectrometers either consist of bulky wavelength-scanning components or have limited detection channels, preventing parallel detection of broadband single photons with high spectral resolutions. Here, we present the first broadband chip-scale single-photon spectrometer covering both visible and infrared wavebands spanning from 600nm to 2000nm. The spectrometer integrates an on-chip dispersive echelle grating with a single-element propagating superconducting nanowire detector of ultraslow-velocity for mapping the dispersed photons with high spatial resolutions. The demonstrated on-chip single-photon spectrometer features small device footprint, high robustness with no moving parts and meanwhile offers more than 200 equivalent wavelength detection channels with further scalability.

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Broadband on-chip single-photon spectrometer

High quality factor optical microcavities have been employed in a variety of material systems to enhance nonlinear optical interactions. While single-crystalline aluminum nitride microresonators have recently emerged as a low loss platform for integrated nonlinear optics such as four wave mixing and Raman lasing, few studies have investigated this material for second-harmonic generation. In this letter, we demonstrate an optimized fabrication of dually resonant phase-matched ring resonators from epitaxial aluminum nitride thin films. An unprecendented second-harmonic generation efficiency of 17 000%/W is obtained in the low power regime, and pump depletion is observed at a relatively low input power of 3.5 mW. This poses epitaxial aluminum nitride as the highest efficiency second-harmonic generator among current integrated platforms.

17 000%/W second-harmonic conversion efficiency in single-crystalline aluminum nitride microresonators

Leveraging the quantum information processing ability of superconducting circuits and long-distance distribution ability of optical photons promises the realization of complex and large-scale quantum networks. In such a scheme, a coherent and efficient quantum transducer between superconducting and photonic circuits is critical. However, such quantum transducer is still challenging since the use of intermediate excitations in current schemes introduces extra noise and limits bandwidth. Here we realize direct and coherent transduction between superconducting and photonic circuits based on triple-resonance electro-optics principle, with integrated devices incorporating both superconducting and optical cavities on the same chip. Electromagnetically induced transparency is observed, indicating the coherent interaction between microwave and optical photons. Internal conversion efficiency of 25.9\pm0.3\% has been achieved, with 2.05\pm0.04\% total efficiency. Superconducting cavity electro-optics offers broad transduction bandwidth and high scalability, and represents a significant step towards the integrated hybrid quantum circuits and distributed quantum computation.

Superconducting cavity electro-optics: a platform for coherent photon conversion between superconducting and photonic circuits

Optical frequency combs are widely used in precision metrology, communication, and sensing. Though highly desired for biosensing and interconnection with atomic systems, on-chip generation of combs near visible-light frequencies is severely limited by high losses. This study uses coexisting optical nonlinearities in an AlN microring resonator to generate a near-visible frequency comb with surprising efficiency (up to 22%). The approach could be extended to other frequency ranges as well.

https://link.aps.org/accepted/10.1103/PhysRevApplied.10.014012

Efficient Generation of a Near-visible Frequency Comb via Cherenkov-like Radiation from a Kerr Microcomb

Aluminum nitride and silicon nitride have recently emerged as important nonlinear optical materials in integrated photonics for their quadratic and cubic optical nonlinearity, respectively. A composite aluminum nitride and silicon nitride waveguide structure, if realized, will simultaneously allow highly efficient second- and third-harmonic generation on the same chip platform and therefore assists 2f-3f self-referenced frequency combs. On-chip third-harmonic generation, being a higher-order nonlinear optics effect, is more demanding than second-harmonic generation due to the large frequency difference between the fundamental- and third-harmonic frequencies, which implies a large change of refractive indices and more stringent requirements on phase matching. In this work we demonstrate high-efficiency third-harmonic generation in a high-Q composite aluminum nitride/silicon nitride ring cavity. By carefully engineering the microring resonator geometry of the bilayer structure to optimize the quality factor, mode volume, and modal overlap of the optical fields, we report a maximum conversion efficiency of 180%  W−2, corresponding to an absolute conversion efficiency of 0.16%. This composite photonic chip design provides a solution for efficient frequency conversion over a large wavelength span, broadband comb generation, and self-referenced frequency combs.

Xiang Guo

Papers

Broadband on-chip single-photon spectrometer

17 000%/W second-harmonic conversion efficiency in single-crystalline aluminum nitride microresonators

Superconducting cavity electro-optics: a platform for coherent photon conversion between superconducting and photonic circuits

Efficient Generation of a Near-visible Frequency Comb via Cherenkov-like Radiation from a Kerr Microcomb

Efficient third-harmonic generation in composite aluminum nitride/silicon nitride microrings