Materials for emergent silicon-integrated optical computing

Abstract

Progress in computing architectures is approaching a paradigm shift: traditional computing based on digital complementary metal-oxide semiconductor technology is nearing physical limits in terms of miniaturization, speed, and, especially, power consumption. Consequently, alternative approaches are under investigation. One of the most promising is based on a “brain-like” or neuromorphic computation scheme. Another approach is quantum computing using photons. Both of these approaches can be realized using silicon photonics, and at the heart of both technologies is an efficient, ultra-low power broad band optical modulator. As silicon modulators suffer from relatively high power consumption, materials other than silicon itself have to be considered for the modulator. In this Perspective, we present our view on such materials. We focus on oxides showing a strong linear electro-optic effect that can also be integrated with Si, thus capitalizing on new materials to enable the devices and circuit architectures that exploit shifting computational machine learning paradigms, while leveraging current manufacturing infrastructure. This is expected to result in a new generation of computers that consume less power and possess a larger bandwidth.

Photonic matrix multiplication lights up photonic accelerator and beyond

“…As the scale of MRR array becomes larger, the controlling technique would be paramount, integrated photoconductive heaters enable control of large-scale silicon photonic MRR array without requiring additional components, complex tuning algorithms, or additional electrical I/Os 131 . The electro-optical modulators using lithium niobate and barium titanate integrated with silicon photonics offer high-speed phase modulation and low operating voltage, making these devices very attractive for PICs designed for photonic computing 132 . The maturity of state-of-the-art silicon nitride platform has enabled low-loss waveguides (<1 dB/m), thus reducing energy consumption and cost compared with current digital electronics, and provided opportunities for the practical application of photonic accelerators to SOI and III–V PICs especially when computation bandwidth and modulation rates continue to increase rapidly 133 .…”

Demonstrating the Potential of Alkali Metal-Doped Cyclic C6O6Li6 Organometallics as Electrides and High-Performance NLO Materials

“…Interest in designing high-performance nonlinear optical (NLO) materials is growing rapidly due to their widespread applications in optical computing, − optical communication, , optical switching, , optical logic functions, , dynamic image processing, , and many other optoelectronic fields. − Recently, a unique class of compounds known as electrides having isolated excess electrons has garnered great interest from the chemical society. − Due to this nontrivial electronic structure, they are easily polarizable and can serve as superior nonlinear optical materials. ,, Electrides due to their certain interesting properties such as the ultralow work function, relatively high catalytic activity, high electronic mobility, and optical and anisotropic properties have great potential for various applications. − In 1983, Dye and co-workers fabricated the first organic crystalline electride consisting of organic complexant cages in which alkali metals and electrons were trapped . Since then, various organic and inorganic electrides have been reported in literature, and their novel electronic structures have been investigated both computationally and experimentally. − …”

Sol-Gel Derived Silica-Titania Waveguide Films for Applications in Evanescent Wave Sensors—Comprehensive Study

“…Currently, the main areas of application of integrated optics are: data centers [ 3 , 4 ], optical telecommunication [ 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 ], and evanescent wave sensors [ 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 ]. The emerging area of application for integrated optics involves optical computing [ 17 ], and quantum photonics [ 18 , 19 ].…”

“…Integrated optics systems for applications in data centers, telecommunications, optical computing and quantum photonics are designed for the NIR spectral range and they are developed on the basis of two mature material platforms: silica [ 7 , 8 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], and indium phosphide [ 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. By combining both material platforms having high refractive indexes, using CMOS (complementary metal oxide semiconductor) processes, we can fabricate fully functional processing systems of optical signals with high integration scale [ 6 , 23 ].…”