In today's age, companies employ machine learning to extract information from large quantities of data. One of those techniques, reservoir computing (RC), is a decade old and has achieved state-of-the-art performance for processing sequential data. Dedicated hardware realizations of RC could enable speed gains and power savings. Here we propose the first integrated passive silicon photonics reservoir. We demonstrate experimentally and through simulations that, thanks to the RC paradigm, this generic chip can be used to perform arbitrary Boolean logic operations with memory as well as 5-bit header recognition up to 12.5 Gbit s À 1 , without power consumption in the reservoir. It can also perform isolated spoken digit recognition. Our realization exploits optical phase for computing. It is scalable to larger networks and much higher bitrates, up to speeds 4100 Gbit s À 1 . These results pave the way for the application of integrated photonic RC for a wide range of applications.

To emulate a spiking neuron, a photonic component needs to be excitable. In this paper, we theoretically simulate and experimentally demonstrate cascadable excitability near a self-pulsation regime in high-Q-factor silicon-on-insulator microrings. For the theoretical study we use Coupled Mode Theory. While neglecting the fast energy and phase dynamics of the cavity light, we can still preserve the most important microring dynamics, by only keeping the temperature difference with the surroundings and the amount of free carriers as dynamical variables of the system. Therefore we can analyse the microring dynamics in a 2D phase portrait. For some wavelengths, when changing the input power, the microring undergoes a subcritical Andronov-Hopf bifurcation at the selfpulsation onset. As a consequence the system shows class II excitability. Experimental single ring excitability and self-pulsation behaviour follows the theoretic predictions. Moreover, simulations and experiments show that this excitation mechanism is cascadable.

Abstract:In the paper, we review our work on heterogeneous III-V-on-silicon photonic components and circuits for applications in optical communication and sensing. We elaborate on the integration strategy and describe a broad range of devices realized on this platform covering a wavelength range from 850 nm to 3.85 μm.

Silicon photonics (SiPh) enables compact photonic integrated circuits (PICs), showing superior performance for a wide variety of applications. Various optical functions have been demonstrated on this platform that allows for complex and powerful PICs. Nevertheless, laser source integration technologies are not yet as mature, hampering the further cost reduction of the eventual Si photonic systems-on-chip and impeding the expansion of this platform to a broader range of applications. Here, we discuss a promising technology, micro-transfer-printing (μTP), for the realization of III-V-on-Si PICs. By employing a polydimethylsiloxane elastomeric stamp, the integration of III-V devices can be realized in a massively parallel manner on a wafer without substantial modifications to the SiPh process flow, leading to a significant cost reduction of the resulting III-V-on-Si PICs. This paper summarizes some of the recent developments in the use of μTP technology for realizing the integration of III-V photodiodes and lasers on Si PICs.

No abstract