A photonic aerosol particle sensor includes a microfluidic sensor chamber in which is disposed a plurality of photonic waveguide resonators each having a photonic waveguide on an underlying substrate, along a separate waveguide resonator path with a lateral width different than that of other photonic waveguide resonators. All waveguides in the plurality have a common vertical thickness of a common waveguide material having a refractive index that is larger than that of the underlying substrate material. An optical input connection couples light into the waveguide resonators. An aerosol particle input fluidically connected to the microfluidic chamber fluidically conveys aerosol particles to the chamber, and an aerosol particle output fluidically connected to the microfluidic chamber fluidically conveys aerosol particles out of the chamber. At least one optical output connection accepts light out of the plurality of photonic waveguide resonators to provide a signal indicative of at least one aerosol particle characteristic.

A planar optical resonator capable of parametrically generating frequency combs includes two optical waveguide cores forming inner and outer loops, the resonator having two sections, in which laterally adjacent segments of the cores are resonantly optically coupled to each other at two separate wavelength regions causing separate peaks in the second order dispersion. The resonator sections may be configured to suppress integrated dispersion of the resonator in a broad spectral range favorably for generating a spectrally uniform frequency comb.

Waveguide shuffle blocks (WSBs) are provided that may incorporate waveguides routed in any pattern to effectuate many-to-many connectivity between optical cables/fibers or other WSBs connected thereto. Such WSBs may be configured in ways that allow the WSBs to be stacked and to achieve effective optical cable/fiber organization. Moreover, such WSBs may include readable tags that can provide information regarding a particular WSB configuration and/or what optical cables/fibers are connected so that network topology can be discovered and monitored. Some WSBs may be configured as wavelength shifting shuffles (WSSs) that allow a particular wavelength(s) of an optical signal(s) to be routed as desired and/or alter a first wavelength associated with a particular optical signal to a second wavelength. In other embodiments WSSs can be configured to allow for wavelength multiplexing/demultiplexing.

A photonic system includes a passive optical cavity and an optical waveguide. The passive optical cavity has a preferred radial mode for light propagation within the passive optical cavity. The preferred radial mode has a unique light propagation constant within the passive optical cavity. The optical waveguide is configured to extend past the passive optical cavity such that at least some light propagating through the optical waveguide will evanescently couple into the passive optical cavity. The passive optical cavity and the optical waveguide are collectively configured such that a light propagation constant of the optical waveguide substantially matches the unique light propagation constant of the preferred radial mode within the passive optical cavity.

An interferometer comprises a plurality of waveguide branches, where each waveguide branch of the plurality of waveguide branches is disposed to shift a phase of a corresponding portion of the optical beam. Each waveguide branch comprises a bus waveguide and a photonic resonator coupled to the bus waveguide, where the photonic resonator is disposed proximate to the bus waveguide, and where the photonic resonator is disposed to couple and circle the corresponding portion of the optical beam, at the photonic resonator, one or more times to shift the phase of the corresponding portion of the optical beam.

An optical modulator is disclosed that includes an optical resonator structure. The optical resonator structure includes at least one non-linear portion, the at least one non-linear portion comprising at least one radial junction region. The at least one radial junction region is formed between at least first and second materials, respectively, having different electronic conductivity characteristics. A principal axis of the at least one radial junction region is oriented along a radius of curvature of the at least one non-linear portion. The optical modulator includes an optical waveguide that is coupled to the at least one non-linear portion of the optical resonator structure.

An optical waveguide circuit includes: a ring waveguide; an input connection waveguide; an output connection waveguide; and an optical multiplexing/demultiplexing part that optically connects the ring waveguide with the input connection waveguide, and that optically connects the ring waveguide with the output connection waveguide. Further, at least one of the input connection waveguide and the output connection waveguide includes a plurality of curved waveguides, a sum total of products of curvature signs and bending angles of the curved waveguides and a sum total of a curvature sign and a bending angle of the ring waveguide have a same absolute value with signs opposite to each other, and rotation of a polarization plane of light generated in the ring waveguide and rotation of a polarization plane of light generated in the curved waveguides cancel each other out.

An optical transceiver module includes a light source configured to emit light, a transmitter resonator configured to transmit light signals from the light source, a temperature sensor configured to detect temperatures of the transmitter resonator, and a controller circuit. The controller circuit is configured to obtain a first temperature variation value based on the detected temperatures, and encode the first temperature variation value via the transmitter resonator in an outgoing data stream.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide etch-variation tolerant optical coupling components and processes for making the same. An etch-variation tolerant geometry is determined for at least one waveguide of an optical coupling component (e.g., a directional coupler). The geometry is optimized such that each fabricated instance of an optical component design with the etch-variation tolerant geometry has substantially the same coupling ratio at any etch depth between a shallow etch depth and a deep etch depth.

A semiconductor photodetector comprising a closed loop configured to receive light from an external source adapted to trap light within said closed loop until absorption by the semiconductor.