超高速通信や量子応用への扉を開く可能性 Could open doors to ultra-fast communications and quantum applications
2023-03-29 ハーバード大学
具体的には、拡張現実や仮想現実、環境監視・センシング、量子物理学に基づく安全な通信、および距離・時間の高精度測定が挙げられる。また、可視光を使用する量子情報アプリケーションにも適用可能である。
研究は、Nature Communicationsに掲載された。
＜関連情報＞
- https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2023/03/electro-optic-modulator-precisely-controls-visible-light-exceptional-efficiency
- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-36870-w
サブ1ボルト、高帯域の可視～近赤外光電気光学変調器。 Sub-1 Volt and high-bandwidth visible to near-infrared electro-optic modulators
Dylan Renaud,Daniel Rimoli Assumpcao,Graham Joe,Amirhassan Shams-Ansari,Di Zhu,Yaowen Hu,Neil Sinclair & Marko Loncar
Nature Communications Published:27 March 2023
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36870-w
Abstract
Integrated electro-optic (EO) modulators are fundamental photonics components with utility in domains ranging from digital communications to quantum information processing. At telecommunication wavelengths, thin-film lithium niobate modulators exhibit state-of-the-art performance in voltage-length product (VπL), optical loss, and EO bandwidth. However, applications in optical imaging, optogenetics, and quantum science generally require devices operating in the visible-to-near-infrared (VNIR) wavelength range. Here, we realize VNIR amplitude and phase modulators featuring VπL’s of sub-1 V ⋅ cm, low optical loss, and high bandwidth EO response. Our Mach-Zehnder modulators exhibit a VπL as low as 0.55 V ⋅ cm at 738 nm, on-chip optical loss of ~0.7 dB/cm, and EO bandwidths in excess of 35 GHz. Furthermore, we highlight the opportunities these high-performance modulators offer by demonstrating integrated EO frequency combs operating at VNIR wavelengths, with over 50 lines and tunable spacing, and frequency shifting of pulsed light beyond its intrinsic bandwidth (up to 7x Fourier limit) by an EO shearing method.
