An optical switch structure includes a substrate, a first electrical contact, a first material having a first conductivity type electrically connected to the first electrical contact, a second material having a second conductivity type coupled to the first material, and a second electrical contact electrically connected to the second material. The optical switch structure also includes a waveguide structure disposed between the first electrical contact and the second electrical contact and comprising a waveguide core coupled to the substrate and including a first material characterized by a first index of refraction and a first electro-optic coefficient and a waveguide cladding at least partially surrounding the waveguide core and including a second material characterized by a second index of refraction and a second electro-optic. The first index of refraction is greater than the second index of refraction the first electro-optic coefficient is less than the second electro-optic coefficient

An optical transceiver includes a silicon photonics substrate, transmitter circuitry, and receiver circuitry that are heterogeneously integrated. The transmitter circuitry includes a plurality of laser devices formed on the silicon photonics substrate, each of the plurality of laser devices configured to generate a respective laser light, a plurality of modulators formed on the silicon photonics substrate, each of the plurality of modulators configured to modulate the laser lights based on driver signals and output, from the silicon photonics substrate, the modulated laser lights, and a driver formed on the silicon photonics substrate and configured to generate the driver signals. The receiver circuitry includes a photodetector configured to receive a plurality of optical signals and convert the plurality of optical signals to respective electrical signals and a transimpedance amplifier device configured to receive the electrical signals and output the electrical signals from the silicon photonics substrate as electrical outputs.

The present technology relates to an optical logic circuit device. The optical logic circuit device includes a first input port and a second input port. A symmetric arrangement of waveguides is coupled to the first input port and the second input port. The symmetric arrangement of waveguides having a pair of topologically protected edge states that provide propagation paths through the symmetric arrangement of waveguides. An output port is coupled to the symmetric arrangement of waveguides. Methods of fabricating and using the optical logic circuit device are also disclosed.

Optical switch trees are commonly used to route light from one input channel to multiple possible output channels one at a time. As the number of output channels increases, the number of wire-bonding pads increases and the drive electronics becomes more complicated. The optical switch tree comprises an array of optical switches arranged in a plurality of rows of optical switches, each connected by a row bus, which are connected to a first multiplexer and a common power source; and a plurality of columns of optical switches, each connected by a column bus, which are connected to a second multiplexer and a common ground. A control processor selects one of the plurality of columns of optical switches to connect to the common ground, and selects one of the plurality of rows of optical switches to connect to the common power source, thereby selecting a single optical switch in the array of optical switches to activate.

Described are various configurations of reduced crosstalk optical switches. Various embodiments can reduce or entirely eliminate crosstalk using a coupler that has a power-splitting ratio that compensates for amplitude imbalance caused by phase modulator attenuation. Some embodiments implement a plurality of phase modulators and couplers as part of a dilated switch network to increase overall bandwidth and further reduce potential for crosstalk.

This application provides an example light source switching apparatus. The apparatus includes first and second multi-mode interference (MMI) couplers, and a phase modulator. The first MMI coupler includes four ports, where first and second ports are located on one side, and third and fourth ports are located on the other side. The second MMI coupler includes three ports, where fifth and sixth ports are located on one side, and a seventh port is located on the other side. The first and the second ports connect to the fifth and the sixth ports, respectively, to form two connections. The phase modulator is disposed on one of the two connections, and the seventh port connects to an optical modulator. Both the third and the fourth ports connect to a light source emitting continuous light, and the phase modulator selects one of the two light sources for output from the seventh port.

There is provided an illumination device comprising: a laser; a waveguide comprising at least first and second transparent lamina; a first grating device for coupling light from the laser into a TIR path in the waveguide; a second grating device for coupling light from the TIR path out of the waveguide; and a third grating device for applying a variation of at least one of beam deflection, phase retardation or polarization rotation across the wavefronts of the TIR light. The first second and third grating devices are each sandwiched by transparent lamina.

Power consumption in MZI-based integrated photonic switches or filters throughout the operational life can be reduced by reducing fabrication-induced phase misalignment between the unpowered operational mode of the switch or filter and the predominant switch state, and/or by enabling low-power compensation for any such misalignment. In various embodiments, misalignment is reduced by increasing the width of the waveguides implementing the interferometer arms of the MZI, and/or by structuring a region containing the MZI symmetrically to diminish stress-induced misalignment. In some embodiments, phase tuners are used to actively compensate for any phase misalignment, with a tuner drive voltage substantially lower than used to switch to the non-dominant state.

An integrated optical transceiver includes a transmitter unit and a receiver unit each provided on a surface region of a substrate member. The transmitter unit includes four laser devices configured to output four laser lights and a set of four power splitter devices coupled to the four laser lights to split each of the four laser lights to two replicated transmit paths. The receiver unit has two replicated receive paths each including a photodetector device and a transimpedance amplifier device coupled to the photodetector device. A planar light circuit block is mounted on the substrate member and includes a multiplexer device configured to couple the four laser lights of the transmitter unit and multiplex to one output light delivered to an optical output port and a demultiplexer device configured to receive an input light from an optical input port and demultiplex to four input optical signals for the receiver unit.

Provided is an optical switch element capable of adjusting an output strength of light output from an optical switch to a fixed level. The optical switch element includes: an optical coupler configured to divide an input light into N fractions of light and output the N fractions of light, where N represents an integer equal to or larger than 2; N branch optical waveguides connected to an output side of the optical coupler; N light absorption gates connected to the respective N branch optical waveguides; and N output optical waveguides connected to the respective N light absorption gates, the optical coupler, the N branch optical waveguides, the N light absorption gates, and the N output optical waveguides being connected to one another in order, the N light absorption gates each being controlled to adjust an output strength of transmitted light output from the N output optical waveguides based on a loss amount acquired in advance by a light absorption effect or light amplification effect of the N light absorption gates.