Non-volatile electrically programmable integrated photonics with a 5-bit operation

Rui Chen (), Zhuoran Fang, Christopher Perez, Forrest Miller, Khushboo Kumari, Abhi Saxena, Jiajiu Zheng, Sarah J. Geiger, Kenneth E. Goodson and Arka Majumdar ()
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Rui Chen: University of Washington
Zhuoran Fang: University of Washington
Christopher Perez: Stanford University
Forrest Miller: University of Washington
Khushboo Kumari: University of Washington
Abhi Saxena: University of Washington
Jiajiu Zheng: University of Washington
Sarah J. Geiger: The Charles Stark Draper Laboratory
Kenneth E. Goodson: Stanford University
Arka Majumdar: University of Washington

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Scalable programmable photonic integrated circuits (PICs) can potentially transform the current state of classical and quantum optical information processing. However, traditional means of programming, including thermo-optic, free carrier dispersion, and Pockels effect result in either large device footprints or high static energy consumptions, significantly limiting their scalability. While chalcogenide-based non-volatile phase-change materials (PCMs) could mitigate these problems thanks to their strong index modulation and zero static power consumption, they often suffer from large absorptive loss, low cyclability, and lack of multilevel operation. Here, we report a wide-bandgap PCM antimony sulfide (Sb2S3)-clad silicon photonic platform simultaneously achieving low loss ( 10 dB), high cyclability (>1600 switching events), and 5-bit operation. These Sb2S3-based devices are programmed via on-chip silicon PIN diode heaters within sub-ms timescale, with a programming energy density of $$\sim 10\,{fJ}/n{m}^{3}$$ ~ 10 f J / n m 3 . Remarkably, Sb2S3 is programmed into fine intermediate states by applying multiple identical pulses, providing controllable multilevel operations. Through dynamic pulse control, we achieve 5-bit (32 levels) operations, rendering 0.50 ± 0.16 dB per step. Using this multilevel behavior, we further trim random phase error in a balanced Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-39180-3

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