A self-lit display panel includes a photonic integrated circuit payer including an array of waveguides and an array of out-couplers for out-coupling portions of the illuminating light through pixels of the panel. The self-lit display panel may include a transparent electronic circuitry layer backlit by the photonic integrated circuit layer; the two layers may be on a same substrate or on opposed substrates defining a cell filled with an electro-active material. The configuration allows for chief ray engineering, zonal illuminating, and separate illumination with red, green, and blue illuminating light.

Structures for a grating coupler and methods of fabricating a structure for a grating coupler. The structure includes a grating coupler having a central portion and edge portions. The central portion and the edge portions define a sidewall, and the central portion and the edge portions have a first longitudinal axis along which the edge portions are arranged in a spaced relationship. Each edge portion projects from the sidewall at an angle relative to the first longitudinal axis. A waveguide core is optically coupled to the grating coupler. The first longitudinal axis is aligned in a first direction, and the waveguide core has a second longitudinal axis that is aligned in a second direction different from the first direction.

Techniques disclosed herein relate to photon sources with high spectral purity and high brightness. In one embodiment, a photon-pair source includes a pump waveguide, a first resonator coupled to the pump waveguide to couple pump photons from the pump waveguide into the first resonator, a second resonator coupled to the first resonator, and an output waveguide coupled to the second resonator. The second resonator is configured to convert the pump photons into photon pairs. The second resonator and the first resonator are configured to cause a coupling-induced resonance splitting in the second resonator or the first resonator. The second resonator and the output waveguide are configured to couple the photon pairs from the second resonator into the output waveguide. In some embodiments, the photo-pair source includes one or more tuners for tuning at least one of the first resonator or the second resonator.

An apparatus includes a cladding layer and a plurality of waveguides. The cladding layer includes a central axis. The plurality of waveguides are disposed within the cladding layer and receive a light from a light source. The plurality of waveguides have refractive indices that are adjustable to change a mode of the light such that the mode of the light is steered towards the central axis.

One illustrative device disclosed herein includes a lower waveguide structure and an upper body structure positioned above at least a portion of the lower waveguide structure. In this example, the device also includes a grating structure positioned in the upper body structure, wherein the grating structure comprises a plurality of grating elements that comprise a tunable material whose index of refraction may be changed by application of energy to the tunable material.

A method of Silicon Selective Epitaxial Growth (SEG) applied to a Silicon on Insulator (SOI) wafer to provide a first region of customized thickness includes with the SOI wafer having a standard thickness, applying a hard mask to a plurality of regions of the SOI wafer including the first region; applying photo-lithography protection to cover the hard mask in all of the plurality of regions except the first region; removing the hard mask in the first region; and performing Silicon SEG in the first region to provide the customized thickness in the first region, wherein the customized thickness is greater than the standard thickness.

An optical device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a plurality of separation walls, one or more optical waveguides, and one or more spacers. The first substrate has a surface which extends in a first direction and a second direction intersecting the first direction. The second substrate faces the first substrate. The plurality of separation walls are positioned between the first substrate and the second substrate and extend in the first direction. The one or more optical waveguides are positioned between the first substrate and the second substrate and include one or more dielectric members which are positioned between the plurality of separation walls and which extend in the first direction. The one or more spacers are directly or indirectly sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate and positioned around the one or more optical waveguides.

An integrated optical beam steering device includes a planar dielectric lens that collimates beams from different inputs in different directions within the lens plane. It also includes an output coupler, such as a grating or photonic crystal, that guides the collimated beams in different directions out of the lens plane. A switch matrix controls which input port is illuminated and hence the in-plane propagation direction of the collimated beam. And a tunable light source changes the wavelength to control the angle at which the collimated beam leaves the plane of the substrate. The device is very efficient, in part because the input port (and thus in-plane propagation direction) can be changed by actuating only log.sub.2 N of the N switches in the switch matrix. It can also be much simpler, smaller, and cheaper because it needs fewer control lines than a conventional optical phased array with the same resolution.

An optical modulator includes a carrier and a waveguide disposed on the carrier. The waveguide includes a first optical coupling region, a second optical coupling region, first regions, and second regions. The first optical coupling region is doped with first dopants. The second optical coupling region abuts the first optical coupling region and is doped with second dopants. The first dopants and the second dopants are of different conductivity type. The first regions are doped with the first dopants and are arrange adjacent to the first optical coupling region. The first regions have respective increasing doping concentrations as distances of the first regions increase from the first optical coupling region. The second regions are doped with the second dopants and are arranged adjacent to the second optical coupling region. The second regions have respective increasing doping concentrations as distances of the second regions increase from the second optical coupling region.

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a high performance backlight device with photonic integrated circuits. The backlight device includes a light source assembly, a multi-mode slab waveguide, and an out-coupling assembly. The light source assembly includes one or more light sources that generate light in accordance with emission instructions, and a de-speckling mechanism that conditions the generated light to mitigate speckle. The multi-mode slab waveguide in-couples the conditioned light and expands the in-coupled conditioned light in two dimensions to form a homogenous area of conditioned light within a region of the multi-mode slab waveguide. The out-coupling assembly out-couples the conditioned light from the region in a direction normal to the two dimensions, wherein a light modulation layer forms an image from the out-coupled conditioned light.