Toward Large‐Scale Photonic Chips Using Low‐Anisotropy Thin‐Film Lithium‐Tantalate

Toward Large‐Scale Photonic Chips Using Low‐Anisotropy Thin‐Film Lithium‐Tantalate

Abstract Photonic manipulation of large‐capacity data with the advantages of high speed and low power consumption is a promising solution for explosive growth demands in the era of post‐Moore. A well‐developed lithium‐niobate‐on‐insulator (LNOI) platform has been widely explored for high‐performance...

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Main Authors: Fei Huang, Xiaowan Shen, Siyuan Wang, Haochen Xu, Hongxuan Liu, Zexu Wang, He Gao, Xinmin Yao, Hengzhen Cao, Bin Chen, Xijie Wang, Jizhi Zhang, Zhile Wu, Mingyu Zhu, Hongzhi Xiong, Weike Zhao, Huan Li, Zejie Yu, Liu Liu, Yaocheng Shi, Daoxin Dai
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Wiley 2025-03-01
Series:Advanced Science
Subjects:
electro‐optic modulation
lithium tantalate
optical transmitter
photonics chips
wavelength division multiplex
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202410345
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Summary:Abstract Photonic manipulation of large‐capacity data with the advantages of high speed and low power consumption is a promising solution for explosive growth demands in the era of post‐Moore. A well‐developed lithium‐niobate‐on‐insulator (LNOI) platform has been widely explored for high‐performance electro‐optic (EO) modulators to bridge electrical and optical signals. However, the photonic waveguides on the x‐cut LNOI platform suffer serious polarization‐mode conversion/coupling issues because of strong birefringence, making it hard to realize large‐scale integration. Here, low‐birefringence photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on lithium‐tantalate‐on‐insulator (LTOI) are proposed and demonstrated, which enables high‐performance passive photonic devices as well as EO modulators, showing great potential for large‐scale photonic chips. Analysis of mode conversion and evolution behaviors with both low‐ and high‐birefringence shows undesired mode hybridizations can be effectively suppressed. A simple and universal fabrication process is developed and various representative passive photonic devices are demonstrated with impressive performances. Finally, a wavelength‐division‐multiplexed optical transmitter is developed with a data rate of 1.6 Tbps by monolithically integrating 8 EO modulators and an 8‐channel arrayed waveguide grating. Therefore, the demonstrated low‐birefringence LTOI platform shows strong ability in both passively and actively controlling photon behaviors on a chip, indicating great potential for ultrafast processing and communicating large‐capacity data.
ISSN:2198-3844

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