Nicola A. Tyler

Silicon photonics is one of the most prominent technology platforms for integrated photonics and can support a wide variety of applications. As we move towards a mature industrial core technology, we present the integration of silicon nitride (SiN) material to extend the capabilities of our silicon photonics platform. Depending on the application being targeted, we have developed several integration strategies for the incorporation of SiN. We present these processes, as well as key components for dedicated applications. In particular, we present the use of SiN for athermal multiplexing in optical transceivers for datacom applications, the nonlinear generation of frequency combs in SiN micro-resonators for ultra-high data rate transmission, spectroscopy or metrology applications and the use of SiN to realize optical phased arrays in the 800–1000 nm wavelength range for Light Detection And Ranging (LIDAR) applications. These functionalities are demonstrated using a 200 mm complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible pilot line, showing the versatility and scalability of the Si-SiN platform.

10.3390/app9020255

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SiN Integrated Photonics Platform for Near-Infrared Range Applications

Extended Abstracts of the 2020 International Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials (2018)

Nicola A. Tyler Daivid Fowler S. Malhouitre S. Brision Olivier Lemonnier

10.7567/ssdm.2018.h-4-02

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Characterization of SiN Integrated Optical Phased Arrays on a Wafer-Scale Test Station

Journal of Visualized Experiments (2020)

Nicola A. Tyler Sylvain Guerber Daivid Fowler Stéphane Malhouitre Stéphanie Garcia

Optical phased arrays (OPAs) can produce low-divergence laser beams and can be used to control the emission angle electronically without the need for moving mechanical parts. This technology is particularly useful for beam steering applications. Here, we focus on OPAs integrated into SiN photonic circuits for a wavelength in the near infrared. A characterization method of such circuits is presented, which allows the output beam of integrated OPAs to be shaped and steered. Furthermore, using a wafer-scale characterization setup, several devices can easily be tested across multiple dies on a wafer. In this way, fabrication variations can be studied, and high-performance devices identified. Typical images of OPA beams are shown, including beams emitted from OPAs with and without a uniform waveguide length, and with varying numbers of channels. In addition, the evolution of output beams during the phase optimization process and beam steering in two dimensions is presented. Finally, a study of the variation in the beam divergence of identical devices is performed with respect to their position on the wafer.

Beam divergence

Beam steering

Phased-array optics

Waveguide

Characterization

10.3791/60269-v

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Citations (1)

Characterization of SiN Integrated Optical Phased Arrays on a Wafer-Scale Test Station

Journal of Visualized Experiments (2020)

Nicola A. Tyler Sylvain Guerber Daivid Fowler Stéphane Malhouitre Stéphanie Garcia

Optical phased arrays (OPAs) can produce low-divergence laser beams and can be used to control the emission angle electronically without the need for moving mechanical parts. This technology is particularly useful for beam steering applications. Here, we focus on OPAs integrated into SiN photonic circuits for a wavelength in the near infrared. A characterization method of such circuits is presented, which allows the output beam of integrated OPAs to be shaped and steered. Furthermore, using a wafer-scale characterization setup, several devices can easily be tested across multiple dies on a wafer. In this way, fabrication variations can be studied, and high-performance devices identified. Typical images of OPA beams are shown, including beams emitted from OPAs with and without a uniform waveguide length, and with varying numbers of channels. In addition, the evolution of output beams during the phase optimization process and beam steering in two dimensions is presented. Finally, a study of the variation in the beam divergence of identical devices is performed with respect to their position on the wafer.

Beam divergence

Phased-array optics

Beam steering

Waveguide

Characterization

10.3791/60269

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Modelling superconducting nanowire single photon detectors in a waveguide cavity

Optics Express (2016)

Nicola A. Tyler Jorge Barreto Gerardo E. Villarreal-Garcia Damien Bonneau D. Şahin

In this work we report on a single photon detector system which offers near-unity detection efficiency using waveguide-coupled superconducting nanowires with lengths on the order of 1 μm. This is achieved by embedding the nanowires in a racetrack resonator where the interaction time with the photons trapped in the cavity is increased, thereby allowing for shorter nanowires. We expect this to lead to a higher fabrication yield as the amount of inhomogeneities decreases for shorter nanowires. Our simulations show a system with a 1 μm long superconducting nanowire single photon detector (SNSPD) operating at near-unity detection efficiency using design parameters that can be realistically achieved with conventional fabrication processes. The resonant cavity introduces spectral selectivity to the otherwise broad-band SNSPDs and the cavity induced timing jitter is shown to be insignificant for SNSPDs longer than 1 μm.

Waveguide

10.1364/oe.24.008797

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SiN integrated optical phased arrays for two-dimensional beam steering at a single near-infrared wavelength

Optics Express (2019)

Nicola A. Tyler Daivid Fowler Stéphane Malhouitre Stéphanie Garcia Philippe Grosse

In this work, we present two-dimensional beam steering in the near-infrared using a SiN integrated circuit, containing optical phased arrays. Beam steering was achieved over a range of 17.6° × 3°, at a fixed wavelength of 905 nm. The first dimension was steered via phase differences between the optical phased array channels. The second dimension was accessed by actively switching between various optical phased array sub-devices containing output diffraction gratings with different periods. The characterisation was performed on a wafer-level test station.

Phased-array optics

Beam steering

10.1364/oe.27.005851

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Determining the Optical Nonlinearity of Silicon at Cryogenic Temperatures for Applications in Integrated Photonics

Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (2017)

Nicola A. Tyler Gary F. Sinclair Gerardo E. Villarreal Geraint Gough Jorge Barreto

Get PDF Email Share Share with Facebook Tweet This Post on reddit Share with LinkedIn Add to CiteULike Add to Mendeley Add to BibSonomy Get Citation Copy Citation Text N. A. Tyler, G. F. Sinclair, G. E. Villarreal, G. Gough, J. Barreto, D. Sahin, and M. G. Thompson, "Determining the Optical Nonlinearity of Silicon at Cryogenic Temperatures for Applications in Integrated Photonics," in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics, OSA Technical Digest (online) (Optica Publishing Group, 2017), paper JTh1E.5. Export Citation BibTex Endnote (RIS) HTML Plain Text Citation alert Save article

10.1364/cleo_at.2017.jth1e.5

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Integrated Optical Phased Array Based on a Binary Splitter Tree With Reduced Number of Control Voltages

Journal of Lightwave Technology (2022)

Daivid Fowler Sylvain Guerber Jonathan Faugier-Tovar Nicola A. Tyler Bertrand Szelag

We experimentally demonstrate beam steering in an optical phased array (OPA) featuring a mixture of individual and cascaded phase modulator architecture embedded in the binary splitter tree. We show equivalent beam forming in a 16 channel OPA with 16 separate applied voltages and a cascaded 16ch OPA with 6 control voltages. A 32ch OPA with 10 control voltages is also demonstrated. These results illustrate a flexible means of designing an OPA with significantly fewer electrical connections than the optical channel count, while minimizing the impact of waveguide phase errors on the output beam quality.

Splitter

Phased-array optics

Beam splitter

Beam steering

Waveguide

10.1109/jlt.2022.3154971

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Temperature Dependence of the Kerr Nonlinearity and Two-Photon Absorption in a Silicon Waveguide at 1.55 μm

Physical Review Applied (2019)

Gary F. Sinclair Nicola A. Tyler D. Şahin Jorge Barreto Mark G. Thompson

We measure the temperature dependence of the two-photon absorption and optical Kerr nonlinearity of a silicon waveguide over a range of temperatures from 5.5 to 300 K at a wavelength of 1.55 {\mu}m. The two-photon absorption coefficient is calculated from the power dependent transmission of a 4.9 ps pulse. We observed a nearly two-fold decrease in the two-photon absorption coefficient from 0.76 cm/GW at 300K to 0.42 cm/GW at 5.5 K. The Kerr nonlinearity is inferred from the self-phase modulation induced spectral broadening of the transmitted pulse. A smaller reduction in Kerr nonlinearity from 5.2E-18 m^2/W at 300 K to 3.9E-18 m^2/W at 5.5 K is found. The increased ratio of Kerr to absorptive nonlinearity at low temperatures indicates an improved operation of devices that make use of a nonlinear phase shift, such as optical switches or parametric photon-pair sources. We examine how the heralding efficiency of a photon-pair source will change at low temperature. In addition, the modelling and experimental techniques developed can readily be extended to other wavelengths or materials of interest.

Waveguide

Figure of Merit

Two-Photon Absorption

10.1103/physrevapplied.11.044084

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SiN Integrated Photonics for near-infrared LIDAR

Nicola A. Tyler Daivid Fowler Stéphane Malhouitre S. Brision Olivier Lemonnier

We present a SiN photonic platform for applications in the 800-1000 nm wavelength range. We demonstrate low-loss waveguides, splitters, grating couplers and phase-shifters. We report on the use of integrated SiN circuits for LIDAR applications and show beam steering over 17.7° using a SiN integrated optical phased array.

Beam steering

Phased-array optics

Beam splitter

10.1109/icsj.2018.8602596

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Nicola A. Tyler

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