Inverse design focuses on identifying photonic structures to optimize the performance of photonic devices. Conventional scalar-based inverse design approaches are insufficient to design photonic devices of anisotropic materials such as lithium niobate (LN). To the best of our knowledge, this work proposes for the first time the inverse design method for anisotropic materials to optimize the structure of anisotropic-material based photonics devices. Specifically, the orientation dependent properties of anisotropic materials are included in the adjoint method, which provides a more precise prediction of light propagation within such materials. The proposed method is used to design ultra-compact wavelength division demultiplexers in the X-cut thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. By benchmarking the device performances of our method with those of classical scalar-based inverse design, we demonstrate that this method properly addresses the critical issue of material anisotropy in the X-cut TFLN platform. This proposed method fills the gap of inverse design of anisotropic materials based photonic devices, which finds prominent applications in TFLN platforms and other anisotropic-material based photonic integration platforms.

微电子技术使电子器件从分立走向集成，带来成本、可靠性、功耗和体积等方面长达几十年的指数级改善，是电子信息技术能够得到广泛应用的关键。当前，电子信息技术正遭遇带宽和能耗等瓶颈制约，摩尔定律步履维艰。光子作为另一种主要的信息载子，具有高带宽、高速率、低功耗和高并行等特性，信息技术的继续进步必须更为倚重光子。但是，光子器件的成本、可靠性和规模生产性等方面严重落后于电子器件。因此，基于电子器件发展的历史经验，我们提出光电子“微电子化”，强调光电子以“集成”为发展轨道，以“光电融合”为发展方向。以集成为发展轨道，是强调光电子需借鉴微电子的经验，以适应现代信息系统对器件的要求。光电子的集成化发展有3个主要特征：一是芯片平台硅基化，二是集成规模稳步提升，三是生产模式向fabless演进。以光电融合为发展方向，是强调光电子需与微电子相互结合，通过两者的器件一体化、功能融合化来共同解决信息技术目前面临的带宽、速率和功耗等挑战，以适应数字孪生和元宇宙等应用的要求。光电融合主要有芯片和系统两个层面，涉及到单片光电集成、光电共封装（CPO）、混合光电集成、设备解汇聚和光电混合计算等。光电子“微电子化”不仅是一种技术发展指引，还将对信息光电子产业形成重要影响。文章从市场、竞争、企业和产品等角度进行了开放式思考，指出其可能引发产业重塑。信息光电子发展的“微电子化”是信息技术继续前进的客观要求。一方面，光子正由传输技术泛化为信息通信技术（ICT）全域的泛在连接技术，宏尺度上从地面进入海洋和太空，微尺度上从架间、板间进入板内、封装内和片内。另一方面，光子将由带宽提供技术泛化为ICT全域的硬件基础技术，从传输和连接进入计算、处理和路由等复杂功能域。光电子的“微电子化”将使光子不仅有潜力而且有能力充分发挥自身优势以支撑信息技术的继续进步。

Although the 5G wireless network has made significant advances, it is not enough to accommodate the rapidly rising requirement for broader bandwidth in post-5G and 6G eras. As a result, emerging technologies in higher frequencies including visible light communication (VLC), are becoming a hot topic. In particular, LED-based VLC is foreseen as a key enabler for achieving data rates at the Tb/s level in indoor scenarios using multi-color LED arrays with wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology. This paper proposes an optimized multi-color LED array chip for high-speed VLC systems. Its long-wavelength GaN-based LED units are remarkably enhanced by V-pit structure in their efficiency, especially in the “yellow gap” region, and it achieves significant improvement in data rate compared with earlier research. This work investigates the V-pit structure and tries to provide insight by introducing a new equivalent circuit model, which provides an explanation of the simulation and experiment results. In the final test using a laboratory communication system, the data rates of eight channels from short to long wavelength are 3.91 Gb/s, 3.77 Gb/s, 3.67 Gb/s, 4.40 Gb/s, 3.78 Gb/s, 3.18 Gb/s, 4.31 Gb/s, and 4.35 Gb/s (31.38 Gb/s in total), with advanced digital signal processing (DSP) techniques including digital equalization technique and bit-power loading discrete multitone (DMT) modulation format.

Microcombs are revolutionizing optoelectronics by providing parallel, mutually coherent wavelength channels for time-frequency metrology and information processing. To implement this essential function in integrated photonic systems, it is desirable to drive microcombs directly with an on-chip laser in a simple and flexible way. However, two major difficulties have prevented this goal: (1) generating mode-locked comb states usually requires a significant amount of pump power and (2) the requirement to align laser and resonator frequency significantly complicates operation and limits the tunability of the comb lines. Here, we address these problems by using microresonators on an AlGaAs on-insulator platform to generate dark-pulse microcombs. This highly nonlinear platform dramatically relaxes fabrication requirements and leads to a record-low pump power of <1 mW for coherent comb generation. Dark-pulse microcombs facilitated by thermally controlled avoided mode crossings are accessed by direct distributed feedback laser pumping. Without any feedback or control circuitries, the comb shows good coherence and stability. With around 150 mW on-chip power, this approach also leads to an unprecedentedly wide tuning range of over one free spectral range (97.5 GHz). Our work provides a route to realize power-efficient, simple, and reconfigurable microcombs that can be seamlessly integrated with a wide range of photonic systems.

Based on the 90 nm silicon photonics commercial foundry, sidewall-doped germanium–silicon photodetectors (PDs) are designed and fabricated. The large designed overlap between the optical field and electric field achieves high responsivity while retaining high-speed performance. Even including the loss due to optical fiber coupling, the PD demonstrates an external responsivity greater than 0.55 A/W for transverse magnetic (TM) polarization and 0.65 A/W for transverse electric (TE) polarization at 1530 nm. A flat responsivity spectrum of >0.5A/W is achieved up to 1580 nm for both polarizations. Their internal responsivities can exceed 1 A/W in the C+L optical communication bands. Furthermore, with the aid of a 200 mm wafer-level test and analysis, the overall PDs of 26 reticles have a 3 dB optoelectrical bandwidth >50GHz and a dark current <10nA at a -3V bias voltage. Finally, the eye diagram performances under TE and TM polarizations, various modulation formats, and different input wavelengths are comprehensively investigated. The clear open electrical eye diagrams up to 120, 130, 140, and 150 Gbit/s nonreturn-to-zero are experimentally attained at a photocurrent of 1 mA. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time that single-lane direct detection of record-high-speed 200, 224, 256, and 290 Gbit/s four-level pulse amplitude modulation (PAM) and 300, 336, 384, and 408 Gbit/s eight-level PAM optical signals has been experimentally achieved.

Integrated microwave photonic filters (IMPFs) are capable of offering unparalleled performances in terms of superb spectral fineness, broadband, and more importantly, the reconfigurability, which encounter the trend of the next-generation wireless communication. However, to achieve high reconfigurability, previous works should adopt complicated system structures and modulation formats, which put great pressure on power consumption and controlment, and, therefore, impede the massive deployment of IMPF. Here, we propose a streamlined architecture for a wideband and highly reconfigurable IMPF on the silicon photonics platform. For various practical filter responses, to avoid complex auxiliary devices and bias drift problems, a phase-modulated flexible sideband cancellation method is employed based on the intensity-consistent single-stage-adjustable cascaded-microring (ICSSA-CM). The IMPF exhibits an operation band extending to millimeter-wave (≥30GHz), and other extraordinary performances including high spectral resolution of 220 MHz and large rejection ratio of 60 dB are obtained. Moreover, Gb/s-level RF wireless communications are demonstrated for the first time towards real-world scenarios. The proposed IMPF provides broadband flexible spectrum control capabilities, showing great potential in the next-generation wireless communication.

Visible light communication (VLC) has emerged as a promising communication method in 6G. However, the development of receiving devices is much slower than that of transmitting devices, limited by materials, structures, and fabrication. In this paper, we propose and fabricate an InGaN/GaN multiple-quantum-well-based vertical-structure micro-LED-based photodetector (μPD) on a Si substrate. A comprehensive comparison of the photoelectrical performance and communication performance of three sizes of μPDs, 10, 50, and 100 μm, is presented. The peak responsivity of all three μPDs is achieved at 400 nm, while the passband full-widths at half maxima are 87, 72, and 78 nm for 10, 50, and 100 μm μPDs, respectively. The -20dB cutoff bandwidth is up to 822 MHz for 50 μm μPD. A data rate of 10.14 Gbps is experimentally demonstrated by bit and power loading discrete multitone modulation and the proposed digital pre-equalizer algorithm over 1 m free space utilizing the self-designed 4×4 50 μm μPD array as a receiver and a 450 nm laser diode as a transmitter. This is the first time a more than 10 Gbps VLC system has been achieved utilizing a GaN-based micro-PD, to the best of our knowledge. The investigation fully demonstrates the superiority of Si substrates and vertical structures in InGaN/GaN μPDs and shows its great potential for high-speed VLC links beyond 10 Gbps.

An ultrafast microring modulator (MRM) is fabricated and presented with Vπ·L of 0.825V·cm. A 240 Gb/s PAM-8 signal transmission over 2 km standard single-mode fiber (SSMF) is experimentally demonstrated. PN junction doping concentration is optimized, and the overall performance of the MRM is improved. Optical peaking is introduced to further extend the EO bandwidth from 52 to 110 GHz by detuning the input wavelength. A titanium nitride heater with 0.1 nm/mW tuning efficiency is implemented above the MRM to adjust the resonant wavelength. High bit rate modulations based on the high-performance and compact MRM are carried out. By adopting off-line signal processing in the transmitter and receiver side, 120 Gb/s NRZ, 220 Gb/s PAM-4, and 240 Gb/s PAM-8 are measured with the back-to-back bit error ratio (BER) of 5.5×10-4, 1.5×10-2, and 1.4×10-2, respectively. A BER with different received optical power and 2 km SSMF transmission is also investigated. The BER for 220 Gb/s PAM-4 and 240 Gb/s PAM-8 after 2 km SSMF transmission is calculated to be 1.7×10-2 and 1.5×10-2, which meet with the threshold of soft-decision forward-error correction, respectively.