A Mach-Zehnder modulator for modulating optical signals, and comprising: a plurality of modulating waveguide sections; at least one bias electrode in electrical communication with at least one modulating waveguide section and configured to apply at least one electrical bias signal to one or more of the modulating waveguide sections; and an output optical combiner comprising a plurality of inputs and a plurality of outputs, wherein the plurality of inputs of the combiner are in optical communication with output sides of the plurality of modulating waveguide sections, and wherein a plurality of the outputs of the combiner are monitor outputs.

A fast optical switch can be fabricated/constructed, when a vanadium dioxide (VO.sub.2) and a two-dimensional (2-D) material is activated by either an electrical pulse (a voltage pulse or a current pulse) or a light pulse just to induce an insulator-to-metal phase transition (IMT) in vanadium dioxide. The applications of such a fast optical switch for an on-demand optical add-drop subsystem, integrating with (a) a light slowing/light stopping component (based on metamaterials and/or nanoplasmonic structures) and (b) with or without a wavelength converter are also described.

A multimode interferometer includes: a multimode waveguide mesa having a top face extending in a direction of a first axis, a first side face and a second side face that extend in the direction of the first axis, and a first end face and a second end face that are arranged in the direction of the first axis; and a waveguide mesa connected to the first end face at a port; first and second waveguide mesas connected to first and second ports on the second end face. The multimode waveguide mesa has a first side edge line shared by the top face and the first side face, and an end line shared by the top face and the first end face. The first side edge line forms an acute angle with the end line at an outer vertex where the first side edge line and the end line meet.

A semiconductor optical integrated device includes a substrate, an MMI waveguide, an organic insulating layer, and a heater layer. The MMI waveguide is provided on the substrate and is formed of a semiconductor material. The MMI waveguide includes a first side surface and a second side surface opposite to the first side surface. The organic insulating layer buries the first side surface and the second side surface. The heater layer is capable of heating the organic insulating layer.

Device for modulating the intensity of an optical signal on four levels, this device comprising: a first resonant ring modulator comprising an output port capable of delivering a first modulated optical signal, a second resonant ring modulator comprising an output port capable of delivering a second modulated optical signal, an optical assembler comprising: a first input optically coupled to the output port of the second resonant ring modulator, a second input optically coupled to the output port of the first resonant ring modulator, and an output capable of delivering the optical signal of which the intensity is modulated on four different levels constructed by combining the optical signals received on its first and second inputs.

An optical interference modulator comprises a main input, a main output, an optical splitter connected to the main input, first and second MMI couplers, each with a first primary-end access port connected to the splitter; a second primary-end access port connected to the main output; a first secondary-end access port connected to a respective primary wave-guide; and a second secondary-end access port connected to a respective secondary wave-guide. A light reflector is arranged to reflect light incident from said primary and secondary waveguides back into the same respective waveguide such that light travelling through the respective waveguide from the respective secondary-end access port, after reflection, travels back to the same secondary-end access port. For the MMI couplers, at least one of the respective primary and secondary waveguides comprises a respective light phase modulating device arranged to modulate the phase of light travelling along the corresponding waveguide in either direction.

The disclosed subject matter provides systems and methods for band-interleaving. An example system can include a tunable band interleaver based on a ring-assisted Mach-Zehnder interferometer (RAMZI). The RAMZI can include a predetermined number of an assist rings.

The present disclosure describes photodetectors with multiple inputs and methods of operating photodetectors with multiple inputs. An apparatus includes a substrate, an optical absorber, an optical device, and a tuner. The optical absorber is positioned on the substrate. The optical device produces a first optical signal and a second optical signal from an optical signal received at a first port of the optical device and directs the first optical signal and the second optical signal to the optical absorber. The tuner adjusts a first phase of the first optical signal and a second phase of the second optical signal such that a reflection of the first optical signal from the optical absorber destructively interferes with a reflection of the second optical signal from the optical absorber at the first port.

An optoelectronic chip includes optical inputs having different passbands, a photonic circuit to be tested, and an optical coupling device configured to couple said inputs to the photonic circuit to be tested.

An IC-TROSA point-to-multipoint optical network system includes a point-to-multipoint optical network that is coupled to subscriber devices, and that is coupled to a hub device via a hub IC-TROSA device included in a hub coherent optical transceiver device coupled to the hub device. The hub IC-TROSA device includes a quadrature optical modulator subsystem, and an optical directional coupler device in the quadrature optical modulator subsystem provides a first transmit connection and a second transmit connection to the point-to-multipoint optical network. The optical directional coupler device receives first optical signals from the quadrature optical modulator subsystem and transmits them via the first transmit connection to a first subset of the subscriber devices via the point-to-multipoint optical network, and receives second optical signals from the quadrature optical modulator subsystem and transmits them via the second transmit connection to a second subset of the subscriber devices via the point-to-multipoint optical network.