An apparatus and method for transmitting a plurality of light signals is disclosed. The apparatus includes a splitter configured to split an incoming light signal into a plurality of light signals. Phase control units are included which modify the phase of the light signals. Waveguides are coupled to the phase control units. Each waveguide has a different propagation constant, that is different from adjacent waveguides and the difference between the propagation constants of any two adjacent waveguides is substantially larger than an effective coupling constant between said two adjacent waveguides. Coupling members couple the light signal in one of the plurality of waveguides to free space. The splitter may include output and/or input waveguides and a dispersion element splitting and/or combining: light.

A novel waveguide with excellent optical properties can be easily produced. The photonic nanowires based waveguide has a) a plurality of nanowires; each nanowire having a ridge shape; b) the nanowires are supported by a support substrate or partially or totally free standing; c) the support substrate further supports interfacing waveguides disposed on both sides of the plurality of nanowires. The special concept of present invention allows to align a number of ridge-shaped nanowire that enables to control the amount of light being outside the solid waveguide in the evanescence field. Further, the design is compatible with solid waveguides and offers the possibility to confine (guide the light) within a multiple waveguide arrangement.

A wavelength multiplexing device is disclosed. When light is irradiated on a first longitudinal end region of a metal nano-structure, surface plasmon polaritons are generated in the first longitudinal end region. The surface plasmon polaritons and the light are coupled with each other to form first coupled surface plasmon polaritons, wherein the first coupled surface plasmon polaritons propagate along and on a surface of the metal nano-structure. When the first coupled surface plasmon polaritons reach a two-dimensional material layer, excitons are induced in the two-dimensional material layer, wherein the induced excitons and the first coupled surface plasmon polaritons are coupled with each other to form second coupled surface plasmon polaritons. The second coupled surface plasmon polaritons propagate along and on a surface of the metal nano-structure toward a second longitudinal end thereof.

A method of manufacturing an optical waveguide with a vertical slot including the steps of a) providing a substrate successively including an electric insulator layer and a crystalline semiconductor layer, b) forming a trench on the semiconductor layer to expose the electric insulator layer and defining first and second semiconductor areas on either side, step b) being executed so that the first semiconductor area has a lateral edge extending across the entire thickness of the semiconductor layer, c) forming the dielectric layer having the predetermined width across the entire thickness of the lateral edge, the method being remarkable in that the trench formed at step b) is configured so that the second semiconductor area forms a seed layer.

A wavelength multiplexing device is disclosed. When light is irradiated on a first longitudinal end region of a metal nano-structure, surface plasmon polaritons are generated in the first longitudinal end region. The surface plasmon polaritons and the light are coupled with each other to form first coupled surface plasmon polaritons, wherein the first coupled surface plasmon polaritons propagate along and on a surface of the metal nano-structure. When the first coupled surface plasmon polaritons reach a two-dimensional material layer, excitions are induced in the two-dimensional material layer, wherein the induced excitions and the first coupled surface plasmon polaritons are coupled with each other to form second coupled surface plasmon polaritons. The second coupled surface plasmon polaritons propagate along and on a surface of the metal nano-structure toward a second longitudinal end thereof.

The disclosed subject matter provides a nanoaperture having a bottom surface and a side wall comprising gold. A surface of the side wall is passivated with a first functional molecule comprising polyethylene glycol. The bottom surface of the nanoaperture can be functionalized with at least one second molecule comprising polyethylene glycol, for example, a silane-PEG molecule. The second molecule can further include a moiety, such as biotin, which is capable of binding a target biomolecule, which in turn can bind to a biomolecule of interest for single molecule fluorescence imaging analysis. Fabrication techniques of the nanoaperture are also provided.

Disclosed are a heterogeneously integrated optical modulator and a manufacturing method thereof. The modulator includes a substrate having a trench, an input waveguide disposed at one side of the trench, an output waveguide disposed at the other side of the trench, a first Mach-Zehnder interferometer including first branch waveguides disposed between the input waveguide and the output waveguide and a heater disposed on one of the first branch waveguides, and second Mach-Zehnder interferometers connected to each of the first branch waveguides.

Methods of fabricating an object via direct laser lithography are provided. In embodiments, such a method comprises illuminating, via an optical fiber having an end facet and a metalens directly on the end facet, a location within a photosensitive composition from which an object is to be fabricated with light, thereby inducing a multiphoton process within the photosensitive composition to generate a region of the object; and repeating the illuminating step one or more additional times at one or more additional locations to generate one or more additional regions of the object.

Integrated-optics systems are presented in which an active-material stack is disposed on a coupling layer in a first region to collectively define an OA waveguide that supports an optical mode of a light signal. The coupling layer is patterned to define a coupling waveguide and a passive waveguide, which are formed as two abutting, optically coupled segments of the coupling layer. The lateral dimensions of the active-material stack are configured to control the shape and vertical position of the optical mode at any location along the length of the OA waveguide. The active-material stack includes a taper that narrows along its length such that the optical mode is located completely in the coupling waveguide where the coupling waveguide abuts the passive waveguide. In some embodiments, the passive layer is optically coupled with the OA waveguide and a silicon waveguide, thereby enabling light to propagate between them.

Accelerating photonic and opto-electronic technologies requires breaking current limits of modern chip-scale photonic devices. While electronics and computer technologies have benefited from “Moore's Law” scaling, photonic technologies are conventionally limited in scale by the wavelength of light. Recent sub-wavelength optical devices use nanostructures and plasmonic devices but still face fundamental performance limitations arising from metal-induced optical losses and resonance-induced narrow optical bandwidths. The present disclosure instead confines and guides light at deeply sub-wavelength dimensions while preserving low-loss and broadband operation. The wave nature of light is used while employing metal-free (all-dielectric) nanostructure geometries which effectively “pinch” light into ultra-small active volumes, for potentially about 100-1000× reduction in energy consumption of active photonic components such as phase-shifters. The present disclosure could make possible all-optical and quantum computing devices which require extreme optical confinement to achieve efficient light-matter interactions.