Programmable waveguide mesh photonic integrated circuits based on thin-film lithium niobate

Area of Science:

• Photonics
• Integrated Optics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Programmable photonics chips are essential for next-generation advanced photonics systems.
• Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) offers unique properties for integrated photonic devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design and fabricate a novel programmable photonics chip with a hexagonal waveguide mesh.
• To evaluate the performance of the chip as a tunable optical switch.

Main Methods:

• Design of a programmable photonics chip featuring a hexagonal waveguide mesh with tunable basic units.
• Fabrication of the waveguide mesh on a TFLN platform.
• Performance testing of individual tunable units and the complete chip.

Main Results:

• The fabricated chip has an effective area of 5.2 mm x 1.5 mm and contains six tunable basic units.
• Tunable basic units demonstrated an extinction ratio exceeding 15 dB, with Pπ = 46 mW and a response time of ~32 µs.
• The programmed waveguide mesh functioned as a multi-channel optical switch with >15 dB extinction ratio per port.

Conclusions:

• The developed TFLN-based programmable photonics chip enables multi-channel arbitrary path switching.
• This technology holds significant potential for applications in advanced all-optical networks.