Efficient single-photon routing and switching are crucial for optical quantum computing and communication. For this purpose, all-optical switches are designed for gigahertz bandwidths. The switching mechanism is based on the optical Kerr effect via cross-phase modulation (CPM) of the single-photon signal by a strong 1550-nm pump pulse. For energy-efficient switching, this nonlinear effect is exploited in a microresonator that can either be used directly as an intensity switch in a typical add–drop configuration or as a phase shifter in a Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure. To speed up resonance build-up and quenching, a pre-emphasis build and an off-resonance wipe pulse are used. The proposed designs are verified by traveling-wave simulations which demonstrate that 0.1 dB insertion loss and ~1 ns switching windows can be achieved. For a scalable out-of-the-lab transfer, we investigate the feasibility of the proposed switch designs for fabrication in a mature photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. In particular, silicon nitride PICs have demonstrated record-low losses which makes them suitable for single-photon applications. By parametric modelling of the microresonator’s directional couplers based on Lumerical EME and 2.5-dimensional varFDTD simulations, the required power transmission coefficients for both signal and pump wavelength can be achieved. This results in an all-optical switch design ready for fabrication in a commercial PIC foundry which can potentially enable scalable architectures for quantum photonic applications.
Silicon-based integrated microwave photonics presents an interesting platform for broadband microwave applications, offering high-speed modulation and a broad selection of devices. We propose and experimentally demonstrate an effective Mach-Zehnder modulator design to generate frequency-multiplied microwave signals. Using a continuous-wave laser signal modulated by an external microwave signal, we demonstrate that by filtering two non-adjacent frequency comb lines, the detected frequency-doubled signal can be improved considerably by suppressing the carrier frequency and unwanted side-band contributions. The demonstrated designs use a 12-GHz and a 21-GHz external driving signal to generate respectively a 24-GHz and a 42-GHz frequency doubled MW signals.
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