System and method for cryogenic optoelectronic data link

Abstract

A cryogenic optoelectronic data link, comprising a sending module operating at a cryogenic temperature less than 100 K. An ultrasensitive electro-optic modulator, sensitive to input voltages of less than 10 mV, may include at least one optically active layer of graphene, which may be part of a microscale resonator, which in turn may be integrated with an optical waveguide or an optical fiber. The optoelectronic data link enables optical output of weak electrical signals from superconducting or other cryogenic electronic devices in either digital or analog form. The modulator may be integrated on the same chip as the cryogenic electrical devices. A plurality of cryogenic electrical devices may generate a plurality of electrical signals, each coupled to its own modulator. The plurality of modulators may be resonant at different frequencies, and coupled to a common optical output line to transmit a combined wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) optical signal.

Claims

1. An optoelectronic modulator, comprising: an optical port configured to communicate an optical signal; a signal port configured to communicate an electronic signal; at least one Josephson junction circuit configured to generate or receive the electronic signal; a transducer comprising a hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms having one or more layers and a zero band gap state, configured to associate a state of optical rays of the optical signal with a state of an electrical field on the hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms corresponding to the electronic signal, wherein a modulation of the optical signal corresponds to a modulation of the electronic signal.

2. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 1, wherein the optical signal is responsive to the electronic signal to produce at least one of an amplitude change of at least 0.05 dB and a phase shift of at least 0.05 radians in response to the modulation of the electronic signal having a maximum amplitude of less than 10 mV.

3. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 1, wherein the optical signal and the electronic signal are modulated with an information signal having a bandwidth of at least 10 GHz.

4. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 1, wherein the optoelectronic modulator comprises a micro ring modulator.

5. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 1, further comprising an optical waveguide adjacent to the sheet of the hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms, configured to provide an optical interaction between the optical rays and the hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms.

6. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 5, wherein the hexagonal lattice of carbon atoms comprises a sheet of graphene deposited on a surface of the optical waveguide.

7. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 6, wherein the optical waveguide comprises a fiber optic communicating a wavelength division multiplexed signal.

8. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 1, further configured to communicate the electrical signal at the signal port with a cryogenic device at a temperature of less than 10 K.

9. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 8, wherein the cryogenic device comprises at least one of a qubit and a quantum computer.

10. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 8, wherein the cryogenic device comprises at least one of a superconducting digital circuit and a superconducting quantum interference detector (SQUID).

11. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 8, wherein the cryogenic device comprises a cryogenic photodetector.

12. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 8, wherein the modulator is integrated on a common substrate with the cryogenic device.

13. The optoelectronic modulator according to claim 1, further comprising at least one single flux quantum circuit configured to generate or receive the electronic signal.

14. A method of modulating optical rays, comprising: receiving light to be modulated; receiving an electronic modulation signal; providing modulator comprising a hexagonal atomic lattice having a field effect tunable Fermi energy k.sub.BT, wherein k.sub.B is the Boltzman constant and T is the temperature, dependent on the received electronic modulation signal supplying the field; cooling the hexagonal atomic lattice below 100 K; interacting the hexagonal atomic lattice with the received light, in an optical resonator, to thereby modulate the light according to the received electronic modulation signal, to produce a modulated optical signal, having a sensitivity of ˜4 k.sub.BT/e, wherein e is the elementary charge; and communicating the modulated optical signal through an optical port.

15. The method according to claim 14, further comprising generating the electronic modulation signal with a circuit comprising a Josephson junction.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising generating the electronic modulation signal with a single flux quantum circuit comprising a Josephson junction.

17. The method according to claim 14, wherein the hexagonal atomic lattice comprises carbon and has a zero band gap state.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the hexagonal atomic lattice comprises graphene and is part of microring modulator, and the light to be modulated is received through a waveguide having an optical surface, configured such that the graphene optoelectronically interacts with the light to be modulated through the optical surface.

19. An optoelectronic transducer, comprising: an electrical interface circuit comprising at least one Josephson junction, configured to communicate an electronic modulation signal; an optical resonator comprising a waveguide having a reflective surface configured to guide light rays; and a hexagonal atomic lattice formed on the reflective surface of the waveguide, the hexagonal atomic lattice having a Fermi energy k.sub.BT, and a set of electrodes, wherein k.sub.B is the Boltzman constant and T is the temperature, the hexagonal atomic lattice associating a state of an electric field across the electrodes with a state of optical rays within the waveguide.

20. The optoelectronic transducer according to claim 19, wherein the electrical interface is configured to receive the electronic modulation signal and modulate the light rays.

21. The optoelectronic transducer according to claim 19, wherein the waveguide is configured to receive the light rays and modulate the electronic modulation signal.

22. The optoelectronic transducer according to claim 19, wherein the electrical interface circuit is further configured to communicate the electrical modulation signal with a cryogenic device at a temperature of less than 10 K.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

(1) FIG. 1A shows a block diagram of an electrical signal output from a superconducting circuit in the prior art, using a cooled transistor amplifier.

(2) FIG. 1B shows a block diagram of an optoelectronic signal output from a superconducting circuit in the prior art, using a cryogenic semiconductor laser and a cooled transistor amplifier.

(3) FIG. 1C shows a block diagram of an optoelectronic signal output from a superconducting circuit in the prior art, using a cryogenic electro-optic modulator and a cooled transistor amplifier.

(4) FIG. 2 shows a layout of a prior art graphene electro-optic modulator, from Liu et al (U.S. Pat. No. 9,360,689 B2, US 2014/0056551 A1).

(5) FIG. 3 shows a conceptual diagram of the functioning of a prior art graphene electro-optic modulator, from Phare et al (Nature Photonics, vol. 9, pp. 511-514, August 2015).

(6) FIG. 4 shows a block diagram of one embodiment of an optoelectonic signal output from a superconducting circuit according to the present invention, using a cryogenic graphene electro-optic modulator without a cooled transistor amplifier.

(7) FIG. 5 shows a conceptual diagram of a superconducting electronic chip with integrated optical modulator readout.

(8) FIG. 6 shows a conceptual diagram of a wavelength-division multiplexed optical output line comprising a series of optical resonators with slightly different resonant frequencies.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

(9) The present technology may be used to provide an external interface for a superconducting circuit comprising an ultrafast microprocessor that generates 64-bit digital words at a clock rate of 25 GHz, at a temperature of 4 K. Such a circuit could be designed using Rapid-Single-Flux-Quantum (RSFQ) logic, or one of its low-power alternatives known as Reciprocal Quantum Logic (RQL), Energy-Efficient RSFQ, or Quantum Flux Parametron. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,571,614; 7,843,209; 7,786,748.

(10) Logic gates in these technologies exhibit switching energies of order 10.sup.−18 J/gate, corresponding to signal levels of order 1 mV and 0.5 mA for 2 ps. For a chip with one million gates at a clock rate of 25 GHz, this corresponds to a total power dissipation of 25 mW. The power associated with input/output lines and drivers at 4 K should be comparable to this. Taking a 64-bit data bus from 4 K to room temperature, 25 mW corresponds to 0.015 pJ/bit, an extremely small value. In contrast, most conventional data links require energies much greater than 1 pJ/bit.

(11) Table 1 presents estimates of the link energy budget for the Cryogenic Graphene Modulator approach of the present invention, based on the system of FIG. 4 and the Micro-ring Modulator of FIG. 3. This is for a 25 Gb/s rate with 64 channels, modulated (using WDM) on the same optical output line. Table 1 shows an estimated 1.66 pJ/b in total for the Graphene modulator approach, with only 0.31 pJ/b dissipated at 4 K. This is a crude estimate, but is quite promising. These numbers assume a laser source with a power of ˜10 mW, with a typical ˜20% energy efficiency.

(12) TABLE-US-00001 TABLE 1 Data Link Energy Budget for Cryogenic Graphene Modulator with WDM Energy (pJ/b) Link Components @ 4K 0.31 Micro-ring Modulator 0.01 Graphene Modulator Driver 0.3 Link Components at 300K 1.35 Laser Source (assuming 20% efficiency) 0.35 Photodetector/Receiver 1

(13) In Table 2 below, the results of Table 1 are compared to other alternative link technologies (FIGS. 1A, 1B, and 1C). Despite the crude estimates in Table 2, the analysis makes clear that the integrated Graphene Modulator at 4 K is the most promising approach, in terms of minimum energy, channel scaling, and compatibility of fabrication with the superconducting circuits.

(14) TABLE-US-00002 TABLE 2 Comparison of Alternative Approaches for Data Output Link Signal Level Energy Channel Fabrication Approach (mV) (pJ/b) Scaling Compatibility Cryo- 1 mV 1.3 pJ/b, Single fiber Integrate Graphene but only link for with super- Resonator 0.3 @ 4K. 64b word conducting @ 4K using WDM IC fab. (FIGS. 3-6) Electrical Progressive ~100 pJ/b, Amp. Chain + Separate Amplifier amplification distributed Wire/bit chips, @ 4K-300K up to 1 V in over Energy cost multi-stage (SiGe) multiple multiple fromcable packaging (FIG. 1A) stages stages heat leaks Cryo- 1-10 mV ~2-20 pJ/b VCSEL + fiber/ Separate VCSEL (Proposed estimated bit + cable chips, @ 40-70K but not yet from 4-40K. complex fab (FIG. 1B) verified) Cryo ~1 V ~1000 pJ/b Separate mod. Separate LiNbO.sub.3 Requires estimated for each bit. parts modulator amplification Requires WDM (FIG. 1C) mod/demod for single fiber Cryo ~250 mV ~250 Separate mod. Separate polymer (est.) pJ/b est. for each bit. parts mod, not Requires WDM yet verified mod/demod for (FIG. 1C) single fiber

(15) FIG. 1A describes an electrical amplifier approach (without conversion to the optical domain), using cooled transistor amplifiers to achieve a gain of a factor ˜1000, or about 60 dB. SiGe heterojunction bipolar transistor (HBT) amplifiers tend to perform well at cryogenic temperatures, with performance superior to that at room temperature. The amplifiers should preferably be distributed over two or more temperature stages, in order to minimize heating the 4K stage. Most practical cryogenic systems are built around commercial cryogenic refrigerators known as cryocoolers, and most 4K cryocoolers have at least one cooling stage at an intermediate temperature, such as 60 K. However, low-attenuation broadband cables are unavoidably also good thermal conductors, making the tradeoffs unfavorable if minimal heat dissipation on the coldest stage is critical.

(16) FIG. 1B describes a cryogenic laser which can be modulated by the electrical signal from the superconducting circuit. However, most semiconductor laser drivers require voltages of ˜1V or more to generate significant modulation. One preferred type of semiconductor laser for integrating with circuits is a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSELs). Some VCSELs function at cryogenic temperatures, but their power dissipation is not really low enough for placement on a 4K stage, and would impose a relatively high load on the cryocooler. It has been proposed to mount a VCSEL at an intermediate temperature ˜40-70 K, connected to the superconducting circuit by a low-attenuation superconducting transmission line. However, despite preliminary reports of low voltage sensitivity for some VCSELs, it is likely that a cold transistor preamplifier driver would still be required. This configuration requires a separate laser, fiber, input cable, and preamplifier for each bit, making the packaging of a large number of parallel bits rather problematic.

(17) Two alternative electro-optic modulators (FIG. 1C) are described in Table 2: a classical EO material—LiNbO.sub.3, and newer polymeric EO materials, such as amorphous polycarbonate and polymethacrylate (PMMA). See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,751,396; US 2002/0105948. The polymeric materials are somewhat more voltage-sensitive than LiNbO.sub.3. However, while the cryogenic performance of LiNbO.sub.3 is well established, little has been demonstrated on the cryogenic electro-optic properties of the polymeric materials. In any case, the necessary input voltage of these established EO modulators is expected to be relatively large and essentially independent of temperature, so that an input preamplifier would be required, as shown in FIG. 1C.

(18) In contrast, the block diagram of FIG. 4 describes a cryogenic graphene modulator without the need for an input preamplifier, which should require only ˜1 mV input amplitude at 4 K. The dissipation level at 4 K is sufficiently low (˜0.3 mW or less) that the modulator can be closely integrated with the superconducting circuits without interfering with their temperature control or operation. A graphene modulator can be based on one layer, or have multiple graphene layers, e.g., two layers. In either case, the mechanism is the same—field-effect shifting of the Fermi energy of the graphene sheet. With one sheet, the voltage is applied with respect to a metallic electrode across a thin dielectric. With two graphene sheets, the voltage is applied across the dielectric between the sheets, and the Fermi energy shifts in opposite directions in the two sheets, as shown in FIG. 3.

(19) A single graphene sheet may be deposited by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) or plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD). The graphene sheet may be deposited on top of a variety of substrates including silicon, silicon nitride, silicon dioxide, and aluminum oxide. See, for example, US 2011/0303899; US 2014/0255621, Gao, Libo; Ni, Guang-Xin; Liu, Yanpeng; Liu, Bo; Castro Neto, Antonio H.; Loh, Kian Ping; “TI-Face-to-face transfer of wafer-scale graphene films”, Nature 2014/01/09 505(7482) pp. 190-194, dx.doi.org/10.1038/nature12763. A double graphene sheet may be produced by depositing the first graphene sheet, followed by thin dielectric insulator such as aluminum oxide, followed by the second graphene sheet.

(20) While direct vacuum deposition of one or more graphene sheets onto the desired substrate is preferred, an optimized method for depositing high-quality graphene may not be available on some substrates. Therefore, an alternative method involves transfer of a graphene sheet deposited on a different substrate, etched from that substrate, and transferred to the desired substrate. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,906,245; 9,023,166; 8,926,852; and US 2014/0231002.

(21) The optical signal may preferably be confined in an optical waveguide (see FIG. 2), which may comprise a core of silicon or silicon nitride, surrounded by silicon dioxide with a smaller index of refraction. The graphene layer(s) may border part of the core, so that modulated absorption of part of the light in the graphene layer may modulate the optical signal.

(22) It is further noted that the optical energy may be coupled to electrons in graphene to resemble Dirac fermion photon coupling, Antonio H. Castro Neto, “Graphene: Phonons behaving badly,” Nature Materials, vol. 6, p. 176, March 2007; Gupta, Awnish, et al. “Raman scattering from high-frequency phonons in supported n-graphene layer films.” Nano letters 6.12 (2006): 2667-2673; Yan, Jun, et al. “Electric field effect tuning of electron-phonon coupling in graphene.” Physical review letters 98.16 (2007): 166802; Sensale-Rodriguez, Berardi, et al. “Broadband graphene terahertz modulators enabled by intraband transitions.” Nature communications 3 (2012): 780; Berardi Sensale-Rodriguez, “Graphene-Based Optoelectronics”, J. Lightwave Tech., 33(5):1100-1108 (Mar. 1, 2015); Andersen, David R. “Graphene-based long-wave infrared TM surface plasmon modulator.” JOSA B 27.4 (2010): 818-823; Li, Wei, et al. “Ultrafast all-optical graphene modulator.” Nano letters 14.2 (2014): 955-959. This has implications for a graphene structure that carries the optical energy over some distance, and which can be modulated by external influences over that distance. See also, Bart Ludbrook, Giorgio Levy, Pascal Nigge, Marta Zonno, Michael Schneider, David Dvorak, Christian Veenstra, Sergey Zhdanovich, Douglas Wong, Pinder Dosanjh, Carola StraBer, Alexander Stohr, Stiven Forti, Christian Ast, Ulrich Starke, Andrea Damascelli, “Evidence for superconductivity in Li-decorated monolayer graphene”, arXiv:1508.05925v2, PNAS, 112(38):11795-11799 (Sep. 22, 2015); Jin-Soo Shin and Jin Tae Kim, “Broadband silicon optical modulator using a graphene-integrated hybrid plasmonic waveguide”, Nanotechnology 26 (2015) 365201 (8pp) doi:10.1088/0957-4484/26/36/365201.

(23) In a preferred embodiment of the invention, portions of the optical waveguide may comprise a micro-ring resonator, similar to that shown in FIG. 3. The resonant frequencies of such a resonator are determined by nλ=2πR, where R is the radius of the ring, λ is the wavelength of the light in the resonator, and n is an integer. Note that alternative resonator designs may produce similar results, such as a linear resonator of length L=nλ/2.

(24) At least a portion of the resonator may be in contact with at least one graphene sheet, the Fermi energy of which may be tuned using an applied voltage. This will change the optical absorption coefficient of the graphene, modulating the resonant frequency and Q of the resonator. Furthermore, the resonator may be coupled to an optical transmission line, also comprising an optical waveguide. If an applied microwave frequency signal is applied to the graphene sheet(s), this will induce a change in the effective impedance of the resonator. If a resonant frequency optical carrier signal is propagating along the transmission line, such a change in the impedance will modulate the optical carrier signal.

(25) In a further preferred embodiment of the invention, a plurality of resonators may be coupled to the same optical transmission line, but the resonators are designed to have slightly different resonant frequencies (see FIG. 6). This may be achieved by fabricating circular resonators with slightly different radii (although the resonators do not necessarily need to be circular). For example, a set of resonators may be designed to have resonant frequencies that form a frequency comb, a set of frequencies with fixed frequency separations. An input optical signal can be generated that comprises such a frequency comb, as also shown in FIG. 6. The frequency comb may establish a set of orthogonal frequencies, and thus permit close spacing of the frequencies without high risk of intersymbol interference. Such an optical frequency comb generator is known in the prior art, see, e.g., US 2008/0285606. Only the component associated with a given resonator will couple to that resonator, and produce a modulation that reflects the voltage applied to the graphene sheet. So, an array of N resonators can simultaneously couple modulated signals to a single optical output line comprising the modulated frequency comb. This may be launched onto an optical fiber to a receiver at room temperature (or any other temperature). The receiver can demodulate each of the resonant frequencies, and reconstruct the N signals in parallel.

(26) The example in FIG. 6 shows an optical wavelength of order 1550 nm, which corresponds to an infrared optical signal in the most common band for optical fiber communications. But the response of graphene is quite broad across much of the infrared and visible spectrum, so that any other optical bands could also be used.

(27) There are significant advantages in the use of a single output fiber, particularly when the number N is large. For example, one may employ an array of 64 resonators to output the elements of a 64-bit digital word. Sending them on a single line will help to assure that proper synchronization is maintained. Furthermore, device packaging and integration may be greatly simplified.

(28) FIG. 5 presents a preferred embodiment showing how the optical output devices may be integrated with superconducting circuits on the same chip, using standard wafer-scale lithography processes. Optical waveguide structures (the transmission line and the N resonators) may first be fabricated by etching and deposition of materials such as silicon nitride and silicon dioxide, together with the graphene bilayers (see, e.g., WO 2014/089,454). The superconducting integrated circuits, which comprise a multilayer sequence of low-temperature deposition and patterning processes, can then be processed on the same wafer, and diced into chips. Some examples of integrated superconducting deposition sequences based on niobium Josephson junctions are presented in the following patents: U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,301,214; 7,615,385; and US 2015/0119253.

(29) There are a wide variety of cryogenic electronic systems that may benefit from the use of low-voltage optical output, at temperatures from ˜100 K down to 100 mK and below. The examples above focused on digital outputs from fast superconducting computers operating at 4K, based on niobium Josephson junctions. These optical output systems may also be used for digital outputs from precision cryogenic instruments such as fast digital samplers, digital radio receiver systems, and ultrafast switching networks. Similar modulators can also be used for analog output, from superconducting and other cryogenic sensor arrays. These may include, for example, SQUID sensors for biomagnetic imaging, single-photon sensors for astronomical imaging (based on superconducting nanowires, transition-edge sensors, kinetic inductance bolometers, or superconducting tunnel junctions), terahertz heterodyne receivers (based on superconducting tunnel junctions, hot-electron microbolometers, or cooled Schottky diodes), and superconducting quantum interference filter (SQIF) arrays for sensitive radio receivers. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,665,553; 7,078,694; 7,991,013; 7,598,897; 7,362,125; 8,179,133; 6,310,350. They may also include outputs from arrays of elements in cryogenic quantum computing systems, which may operate at temperatures of 100 mK or below. Advantageously, graphene may also be used to implement qubits of the quantum computers, and therefore the graphene deposition for external interfacing may occur in a common process with deposition to form the qubit.

(30) The range of systems that may benefit from the use of graphene electro-optic modulators may also include high-temperature superconducting systems, based on cuprates that may operate as high as ˜100 K, magnesium diboride devices that may operate up to 40 K, and iron-based superconductors that may operate up to ˜50 K, as well as non-superconducting sensors that operate in the cryogenic regime up to ˜100 K. See, e.g., CA 2600414; U.S. Pat. Nos. 8,155,318; 7,132,655.

(31) These examples are not to be understood as limiting the invention, but rather as examples that illustrate the wide range of systems and applications that may become clear to those skilled in the art.

(32) Each reference cited herein is expressly incorporated herein in its entirety, for its respective descriptions and teachings. The scope of the present invention includes the various combinations, subcombinations and permutations of the elements disclosed herein either expressly or through incorporation. No element shall be deemed critical or required unless specified a being a necessary element.