Tunable Optical Chip Paves Way for New Quantum Devices

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Testing the integrated device

The researchers tested the performance of the fabricated integrated microring resonators and microheaters by applying different levels of electrical power and then measuring the optical transmission of the waveguide coupled to the microring resonator. Their results showed that it is possible to achieve high-quality resonators with low-power thermal tunability through a robust device that can be manufactured using existing semiconductor foundry processes.

“Combined with other unique features of our crystalline SiC-on-insulator platform, these high-quality devices have the basic requirements for enabling new chip-scale devices that operate in a wide range of wavelengths,” said Ali Adibi, the team leader.  “This chip-scale tunability is essential for performing quantum operations necessary for quantum computing and communication. In addition, because of the biocompatibility of SiC, it could be very useful for in vivo biosensing.”

The researchers are now working to build elements with the crystalline SiC-on-insulator platform for quantum photonic integrated circuits, including on-chip pump lasers, single photon sources and single photon detectors that could be used with the tunable microring resonator to create a fully functional chip for advanced optical quantum computing.

This work is the result of three years of extensive research in forming a reliable hybrid platform with considerably improved SiC material properties and using it for forming innovative devices. Xi Wu, Tianren Fan, and Ali A. Eftekhar in Ali Adibi’s research group contributed immensely to this work. Hesam Moradinejad, a former member of Adibi’s researcher group, also contributed to the platform development (published earlier). This work was primarily funded by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) under grant number FA9550-15-1-0342 (G. Pomrenke).

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