Qi Zhipeng, Hu Guohua, Deng Chunyu, Sun Hao, Sun Yaohui, Li Ying, Liu Bo, Bai Yu, Chen Shuaidong, Cui Yiping
School of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Nanjing University of Information Science & Technology, Nanjing 210044, China.
Advanced Photonics Center, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China.
Nanophotonics. 2022 Aug 12;11(18):4273-4285. doi: 10.1515/nanoph-2022-0169. eCollection 2022 Sep.
On-chip optical communications are in increasingly demand for low-loss, small-footprint and power-efficient waveguiding solutions in the telecom band. However, most integrated optical circuits suffer from high propagation loss and low integration degree. Through manipulating the valley-dependent topological phase of light, we have experimentally demonstrated both robust optical transport and electrical modulation of lightwaves at telecom wavelengths in the valley photonic crystals. With the adoption of valley kink states, the 25 Gbit/s optical signal at 1550 nm is successfully transmitted through a highly twisted interface. Furthermore, an extreme high data rate of 100 Gbit/s is demonstrated with such topological waveguide by wavelength division multiplexing. The electrical tunability of the topological modulators based on thermo-optic effect is also verified, opening a novel route towards active valley kink photonic devices. Our study shows a great possibility of making use of the topological protection in building up high-speed datalinks on a chip.
片上光通信对电信频段中低损耗、小尺寸和高能效的波导解决方案的需求日益增加。然而，大多数集成光学电路存在高传播损耗和低集成度的问题。通过操纵光的谷相关拓扑相位，我们在谷光子晶体中通过实验证明了在电信波长下光波的稳健光传输和电调制。通过采用谷扭结态，1550 nm处的25 Gbit/s光信号成功通过高度扭曲的界面传输。此外，通过波分复用，利用这种拓扑波导展示了高达100 Gbit/s的极高数据速率。基于热光效应的拓扑调制器的电可调性也得到了验证，为有源谷扭结光子器件开辟了一条新途径。我们的研究表明，在芯片上建立高速数据链路时利用拓扑保护具有很大的可能性。
