On-chip CMOS-compatible all-optical integrator

作者：Marcello Ferrera, Y. Park, Luca Razzari, Brent E. Little, S. T. Chu, Roberto Morandotti, David Moss, José Azaña · 发表于：Nature Communications · 年份：2010 · DOI：10.1038/ncomms1028 · 被引用次数：590 · 研究领域：Photonic and Optical Devices、Optical Network Technologies、Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies

One reason for using photonic devices is their speed—much faster than electronic circuits—but there are many challenges in integrating the two technologies. Ferreraet al. construct a CMOS-compatible monolithic optical waveform integrator, a key building block for photonic circuits. All-optical circuits for computing and information processing could overcome the speed limitations intrinsic to electronics. However, in photonics, very few fundamental 'building blocks' equivalent to those used in multi-functional electronic circuits exist. In this study, we report the first all-optical temporal integrator in a monolithic, integrated platform. Our device—a lightwave 'capacitor-like' element based on a passive micro-ring resonator—performs the time integral of the complex field of an arbitrary optical waveform with a time resolution of a few picoseconds, corresponding to a processing speed of ∼200 GHz, and a 'hold' time approaching a nanosecond. This device, compatible with electronic technology (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor), will be one of the building blocks of next-generation ultrafast data-processing technology, enabling optical memories and real-time differential equation computing units.