A quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) coherent photodetector chip consisting of a 4×4 multimode interference 90° optical hybrid and a four-channel evanescent photodetector array is designed and fabricated with its photo-response in the L-band characterized. The metal organic chemical vapor deposition regrowth method is adopted to realize active–passive monolithic integration. The chip exhibits a low dark current below 100 nA for each photodetector in the array, a low excess loss of 0.85 dB, a common mode ratio rejection better than 13.6 dB, and a phase deviation within ±10° over the 40 nm wavelength span.

在越来越多的光子计数应用中，用于近红外光波长领域的单光子探测器受到广泛关注。例如在量子信息处理、量子通信、3D激光测距（LiDAR）、时间分辨光谱等光子计数应用领域。文中设计并展示了用于探测1 550 nm波长光子的InGaAs/InP单光子雪崩二极管（SPAD）。这种SPAD 采用分离吸收、过渡、电荷和倍增区域结构 (SAGCM)，在盖革模下工作时具有单光子灵敏度。SPAD的特性包括随温度范围223~293 K变化的击穿电压、暗计数率、单光子检测效率和后脉冲概率。25 μm 直径的 SPAD 显示出一定的温度相关性，击穿电压随温度的变化率约为100 mV/K。当SPAD在盖革模式下温度为223 K工作时，在暗计数率为4.1 kHz，后脉冲概率为3.29%的基础上，对1 550 nm光子实现了21%的单光子探测效率。文中还分析和讨论了SPAD温度相关性的单光子探测效率、暗计数率和后脉冲概率的来源和物理机制。这些机制分析、讨论和计算可以为SPAD的设计和制备提供更多的理论支持和依据。

Metasurfaces have pioneered a new avenue for advanced wave-front engineering. Among the various types of metasurfaces, Huygens’ metasurfaces are thought to be a novel paradigm for flat optical devices. Enabled by spectrally overlapped electric resonance and magnetic resonance, Huygens’ metasurfaces are imparted with high transmission and full phase coverage of 2π, which makes them capable of realizing high-efficiency wave-front control. However, a defect of Huygens’ metasurfaces is that their phase profiles and transmissive responses are often sensitive to the interaction of neighboring Huygens’ elements. Consequently, the original assigned phase distribution can be distorted. In this work, we present our design strategy of transmissive Huygens’ metasurfaces performing anomalous refraction. We illustrate the investigation of Huygens’ elements, realizing the overlapping between an electric dipole and magnetic dipole resonance based on cross-shaped structures. We find that the traditional discrete equidistant-phase design method is not enough to realize a transmissive Huygens’ surface due to the interaction between neighboring Huygens’ elements. Therefore, we introduce an extra optimization process on the element spacing to palliate the phase distortion resulting from the element interaction. Based on this method, we successfully design unequally spaced three-element transmissive metasurfaces exhibiting anomalous refraction effect. The anomalous refractive angle of the designed Huygens’ metasurface is 30°, which exceeds the angles of most present transmissive Huygens’ metasurfaces. A transmissive efficiency of 83.5% is numerically derived at the operating wavelength. The far-field electric distribution shows that about 93% of transmissive light is directed along the 30° refractive direction. The deflection angle can be tuned by adjusting the number of Huygens’ elements in one metasurface unit cell. The design strategies used in this paper can be inspiring for other functional Huygens’ metasurface schemes.

We propose and numerically investigate an efficient transmission-mode metasurface that consists of quasi-continuous trapezoid-shaped crystalline silicon nanoantennas on a quartz substrate. This metasurface provides a linear phase gradient and realizes both full 2π phase shift and high transmission efficiency in the operating wavelength range from 740 to 780 nm. At the central wavelength around 751 nm, the total transmission efficiency is up to 88.0% and the section of the desired anomalous refraction is 80.4%. The anomalous refraction angle is 29.62°, and larger refraction angle can be achieved by changing the period of the super cell. We demonstrate a refraction angle as large as 38.59°, and the anomalous transmission efficiency reaches 76.6% at wavelength of 741 nm. It is worth mentioning that the structure is much simpler than conventional metasurfaces based on arrays of discrete nanoantennas. Our research may pave the way for designing efficient all-dielectric phase-gradient metasurfaces and applying them in integrated optical devices for wavefront control.

A novel scheme for the design of an ultra-compact and high-performance optical switch is proposed and investigated numerically. Based on a standard silicon (Si) photonic stripe waveguide, a section of hyperbolic metamaterials (HMM) consisting of 20-pair alternating vanadium dioxide (VO2)/Si thin layers is inserted to realize the switching of fundamental TE mode propagation. Finite-element-method simulation results show that, with the help of an HMM with a size of 400 nm×220 nm×200 nm (width×height×length), the ON/OFF switching for fundamental TE mode propagation in an Si waveguide can be characterized by modulation depth (MD) of 5.6 dB and insertion loss (IL) of 1.25 dB. It also allows for a relatively wide operating bandwidth of 215 nm maintaining MD>5 dB and IL<1.25 dB. Furthermore, we discuss that the tungsten-doped VO2 layers could be useful for reducing metal-insulator-transition temperature and thus improving switching performance. In general, our findings may provide some useful ideas for optical switch design and application in an on-chip all-optical communication system with a demanding integration level.