A transmissive optical shutter includes a first contact layer provided on a substrate; a plurality of stacks provided on the first contact layer, each stack of the plurality of stacks including a first reflective layer, an active layer, a second reflective layer, and a second contact layer sequentially provided on the first contact layer; a first electrode provided on the first contact layer; and a plurality of second electrodes respectively provided on corresponding second contact layers of the second contact layers of the plurality of stacks, each second electrode of the plurality of second electrodes being comb-shaped.

An optical modulator uses an optoelectronic phase comparator configured to provide, in the form of an electrical signal, a measure of a phase difference between two optical waves. The phase comparator includes an optical directional coupler having two coupled channels respectively defining two optical inputs for receiving the two optical waves to be compared. Two photodiodes are configured to respectively receive the optical output powers of the two channels of the directional coupler. An electrical circuit is configured to supply, as a measure of the optical phase shift, an electrical signal proportional to the difference between the electrical signals produced by the two photodiodes.

A transmissive optical shutter includes a first contact layer provided on a substrate; a plurality of stacks provided on the first contact layer, each stack of the plurality of stacks including a first reflective layer, an active layer, a second reflective layer, and a second contact layer sequentially provided on the first contact layer; a first electrode provided on the first contact layer; and a plurality of second electrodes respectively provided on corresponding second contact layers of the second contact layers of the plurality of stacks, each second electrode of the plurality of second electrodes being comb-shaped.

A photonic apparatus includes a metamaterial resonator array overlying and electromagnetically coupled to a vertically stacked plurality of quantum wells defined in a semiconductor body. An arrangement of electrical contact layers is provided for facilitating the application of a bias voltage across the quantum well stack. Those portions of the semiconductor body that lie between the electrical contact layers are conformed to provide an electrically conductive path between the contact layers and through the quantum well stack.

Disclosed are articles, embodiments, and methods of formation related substrates which exhibit a tunable interference pattern (e.g., structural color) upon reflection of incident electromagnetic radiation.

An inspection circuit that accurately reflects influence of a manufacturing error generated in a modulator of a main circuit in manufacturing process of an optical circuit, and at the same time, achieves downsizing, is disclosed. The inspection circuit includes an inspection waveguide having a length of half of a length of an arm waveguide of the main circuit and is configured such that test light propagates in two directions on the inspection waveguide, thereby implementing reproduction of characteristics equivalent to those of the modulator of the main circuit. In order to propagate the test light in two directions of the inspection waveguide in the inspection circuit, a loop-shaped path configured between branch ports of the optical branches is utilized. Embodiments of different configurations are disclosed in accordance with aspects where two branch light beams of the test light are guided to the inspection waveguide.

Techniques for programmable microring resonators are disclosed. In an illustrative embodiment, microring resonator is coupled to a waveguide. Due to process variations, the coupling rate between the microring resonator and the waveguide can vary. In order to tune the coupling regime between the microring resonator and the waveguide, a diode that forms part of the microring resonator can be forward biased, increasing the free carrier density and absorbing some of the light in the microring resonator. The forward biased diode can be used for various applications, such as to control the quality factor of the microring resonator, control a chirp on the light, and/or impart a blueshift to the microresonator.

An all-solid-state frequency agile filter (AF2) based on exotic phase change materials (PCM) and Fabry-Perot (FP) multilayer optical design is described herein. AF2 embodiments herein are useful for LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) applications, including DIAL (Differential absorption LIDAR), based on the AF2's benefits of fast tunability (GHzMHz), no moving parts, wide-range tunability, ultra-narrow bandwidth, all-solid-state, and polarization insensitivity. An AF2 consists of a single filter and a single detector, independent of the number of wavelengths needed to transmit for sampling the atmospheric water vapor, ozone, and trace gases absorption line at various spectral locations.