A heterogeneously integrated lithium niobate-on-silicon nitride photonic platform

Abstract

The availability of thin-film lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) and advances in processing have led to the emergence of fully integrated LiNbO3 electro-optic devices. Yet to date, LiNbO3 photonic integrated circuits have mostly been fabricated using non-standard etching techniques and partially etched waveguides, that lack the reproducibility achieved in silicon photonics. Widespread application of thin-film LiNbO3 requires a reliable solution with precise lithographic control. Here we demonstrate a heterogeneously integrated LiNbO3 photonic platform employing wafer-scale bonding of thin-film LiNbO3 to silicon nitride (Si3N4) photonic integrated circuits. The platform maintains the low propagation loss (0.1 dB/cm) and efficient fiber-to-chip coupling (3N4 waveguides and provides a link between passive Si3N4 circuits and electro-optic components with adiabatic mode converters experiencing insertion losses below 0.1 dB. Using this approach we demonstrate several key applications, thus providing a scalable, foundry-ready solution to complex LiNbO3 integrated photonic circuits.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Jun 13, 2023
Source ID
10.1038/s41467-023-39047-7

Entities

People

  • Anat Siddharth
  • Annina Riedhauser
  • Charles Möhl
  • Daniele Caimi
  • Johann Riemensberger
  • Junqiu Liu
  • Mikhail Churaev
  • Miles Anderson
  • Paul Seidler
  • Rui Ning Wang
  • Simon Hönl
  • Terence Blésin
  • Tobias Kippenberg
  • Ute Drechsler
  • Viacheslav Snigirev
  • Youri Popoff

Organizations

  • United States Department of Defense

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Materials Science and Engineering.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene
  • Microelectronics - Microelectromechanical Systems