Studying the dynamical behavior of micro- and nano-mechanical systems (MEMSs and NEMSs) is essential in various fields from nonlinear dynamics to quantum technologies. Hence, it is important to precisely monitor the mechanical properties of MEMS and NEMS devices. In this work, we show how to track and spatially map various properties of a mechanical resonator, such as frequency shift, linewidth, and nonlinearity, by appropriately selecting three closely spaced drive frequencies and using phase-locked loops. This technique tracks changes in the system quickly and efficiently, without the need for repeated frequency sweeps of the oscillator response, simply by employing three phase-locked tones.

Optical satellite communications provide high-data rates with compact and power efficient payloads that can solve the bottlenecks of RF technologies. Photonic integrated circuits have the potential to reduce the cost, size, weight, and power consumption of satellite laser communications terminals, by integrating all the required photonic components on a chip. This can be achieved by leveraging on the mature technology for fiber communications. In this article, the technology status of photonic integrated circuits for optical satellite link is reviewed. Different material platforms are compared, with a focus on high-speed coherent optical communications. The integration of the photonic chip into a communications payload is discussed, together with possible challenges and opportunities. The impact of the space environment, especially the one of radiation, on the performance of the integrated photonic devices is reviewed and discussed.

Recently, it was shown that strongly driven micromechanical resonators show mode shapes that strongly differ from the eigenmodes [F. Yang et al., Spatial modulation of nonlinear flexural vibrations of membrane resonators, Phys. Rev. Lett. 122, 154301 (2019)]. This raises the question of the origin of this nonlinear behavior. We measure the spatial dependence of the nonlinearities of high-stress micromechanical membranes. The mechanical nonlinearity is determined from the frequency response and is found to be independent of the probing location. It is the phase of the response that is instrumental in extracting that intrinsic nonlinearity. Our interferometric readout results in high-harmonics generation. These harmonics have a clear spatial profile that shows ringlike patterns resembling previous reports. These patterns are reproduced by a model of the displacement-dependent reflection signal in combination with motion amplitudes of the same order as the probing wavelength.

Photonic integrated circuits are a promising technology for space applications, particularly for future high-throughput optical satellite links. They can be employed in optical communications terminals to integrate both active and passive devices such as photodiodes, filters, lasers, and modulators. However, the effects of the space environment, and of radiation in particular, on integrated optical devices still need to be better understood. The development of the current technology was driven by fiber-optic communications in terrestrial applications. For the application in space, changes are needed to adapt the same technology to the space environment. We present developments towards the demonstration of a coherent transceiver for satellite optical communications and ranging. Total ionizing dose tests were performed by measuring SiN integrated devices before and after exposure to a Co-60 source, and the permanent impact of irradiation was evaluated. The results show only a relatively small change in optical properties, such as effective index. Nevertheless, these changes could still be detrimental in sensitive devices. The irradiation effect is modeled and simulated to study its impact already at the design phase, and the potential changes on an integrated demultiplexer are discussed. Furthermore, thermal annealing is used to partially revert the changes induced by radiation.

Silicon nitride (SiN) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are a promising technology for satellite applications. In particular, they could be employed in satellite payloads for optical communications, allowing for the integration of optical functionalities on a chip, thus reducing the payload footprint. The research on the space environmental effects of this technology platform is still novel. Here, an experimental characterization of ionizing dose effects on integrated microring resonators (MRRs) and Mach-Zehnder interferometers (MZIs) is presented. Hundreds of devices with different waveguide widths were fabricated and characterized before and after irradiation, thanks to a highly automated setup. The impact of radiation in terms of additional losses, change in effective index, and change in the group index was evaluated. Furthermore, the long-term evolution of the effects after irradiation was also monitored. A change in the effective index as high as 2 x 10(-3) and an increase in losses as large as 1 dB/cm were measured. The measured impact on the effective index and the group index, although relatively small, would be detrimental to applications such as wavelength filtering and/or (de)multiplexing and will need to be taken into account when designing devices for optical satellite communications.

The mechanical properties of thin films can vary significantly due to variations in the deposition process. Monitoring these properties is essential when, e.g., engineering micro-mechanical devices. Established methods such as wafer bending and bulge testing provide only average values for the entire wafer or impose constraints on the sample fabrication process. Therefore, a method to efficiently characterize mechanical properties locally with simple sample fabrication is desirable. In this study, we determine the stress in direct-current magnetron-sputtered aluminum nitride films on prefabricated silicon nitride membranes by measuring the fundamental eigenfrequencies of the membranes and combining it with mechanical band structure simulations. We find that the stress, which is directly related to the strain, transitions from compressive to tensile as a function of the film thickness. Our simple and robust method allows in situ measurements that are compatible with existing nanofabrication techniques of, e.g., hybrid photonic circuits and can probe the stress locally over the chip.

Silicon nitride is a low-loss photonic integrated circuit (PIC) platform. However, silicon nitride also shows small nonlinear optical properties and is dielectric, which makes the implementation of programmability challenging. Typically, the thermo-optic effect is used for this, but modulators based on this effect are often slow and cross talk-limited. Here, we present a different approach to programmability in silicon nitride photonics. Micro-electromechanical elements are added to a photonic directional coupler, forming two H-shaped structures. The coupling can be changed by applying a voltage to electrodes placed onto the H-structure, which are then attracted by an electrostatic force. These suspended directional couplers show an insertion loss of 0.67 dB and demonstrate switching with 1.1 +/- 0.1 mu s rise times, representing a valuable addition to the thermal photonic modulators in silicon nitride technology that offer higher modulation speeds while keeping a comparable insertion loss. (c) 2024 Optica Publishing Group. All rights, including for text and data mining(TDM), Artificial Intelligence (AI) training, and similar technologies,are reserved.

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are a promising platform for space applications. In particular, they have the potential to reduce the cost, size, weight, and power (C-SWaP) consumption of satellite payloads that employ free-space optical communication. However, the effect of the space environment on such circuits has yet to be fully understood. Here, a simulation framework to investigate the impact of heavy ions on a silicon photonic waveguide is presented. These high-energy particles temporarily increase the waveguide losses, resulting in a drop of the transmitted power, commonly defined as either optical single event transient (OSET) or single event effect (SEE). The magnitude and rate of such transients are simulated. The framework is based on three open-source tools: OMERE, Geant4, and Meep. First, the heavy ion fluxes are modeled for commonly used satellite orbits. Afterward, Monte Carlo simulations are used to generate realistic ion tracks and their effect is evaluated with 3-D finite-difference time-domain simulations. The results show that SEEs have only a small impact on the transmission properties of silicon waveguides in the simulated orbits, thus indicating the potential of using silicon PICs in the space environment. Furthermore, the importance of having realistic carrier distributions, compared to using only an analytical model, is discussed.

Optical integrated quantum computing protocols, in partic-ular using the dual-rail encoding, require that waveguides cross each other to realize, e.g., SWAP or Toffoli gate oper-ations. We demonstrate efficient adiabatic crossings. The working principle is explained using simulations, and sev-eral test circuits are fabricated in silicon nitride (SiN) to characterize the coupling performance and insertion loss. Well-working crossings are found by experimentally varying the coupler parameters. The adiabatic waveguide crossing (WgX) outperforms a normal directional coupler in terms of spectral working range and fabrication variance stability. The insertion loss is determined using two different meth-ods: using the transmission and by incorporating crossings in microring resonators. We show that the latter method is very efficient for low-loss photonic components. The lowest insertion loss is 0.18 dB (4.06%) enabling high-fidelity NOT operations. The presented WgX represents a high-fidelity (96.2%) quantum NOT operation. © 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Predisplaced micromechanical resonators made from stressed materials give rise to new static and dynamic behavior, such as geometric tuning of stress. Here, an analytical model is presented to describe the mechanics of such predisplaced resonators. The bending and tension energies are derived and a modified Euler-Bernoulli equation is obtained by applying the least action principle. By projecting the model onto a cosine shape, the energy landscape is visualized, and the predisplacement dependence of stress and frequencies is studied semianalytically. The analysis is extended with finite-element simulations, including the mode shapes, the role of overhang, the stress distribution, and the impact of film stress on beam relaxation.

We introduce a novel method to geometrically tune the tension in prestrained resonators by making Si3N4 strings with a designed predisplacement. This enables us, for example, to study their dissipation mechanisms, which are strongly dependent on the stress. After release of the resonators from the substrate, their static displacement is extracted using scanning electron microscopy. The results match finite-element simulations, which allows a quantitative determination of the resulting stress. The in- and out-of-plane eigenmodes are sensed using on-chip Mach-Zehnder interferometers, and the resonance frequencies and quality factors are extracted. The geometrically controlled stress enables tuning not only of the frequencies but also of the damping rate. We develop a model that quantitatively captures the stress dependence of the dissipation in the same SiN film. We show that the predisplacement shape provides additional flexibility, including control over the frequency ratio and the quality factor for a targeted frequency.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is an emerging material for integrated quantum photonics due to its large chi((2)) nonlinearity. Here we demonstrate the hybrid integration of AlN on silicon nitride (SiN) photonic chips. Composite microrings are fabricated by reactive DC sputtering of caxis oriented AlN on top of pre-patterned SiN. This new approach does not require any patterning of AlN and depends only on reliable SiN nanofabrication. This simplifies the nanofabrication process drastically. Optical characteristics, such as the quality factor, propagation losses and group index, are obtained. Our hybrid resonators can have a one order of magnitude increase in quality factor after the AlN integration, with propagation losses down to 0.7 dB/cm. Using finite-clement simulations, phase matching in these waveguides is explored. (C) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement

Reciprocal space engineering allows tailoring the scattering response of media with a low refractive-index contrast. Here it is shown that a quasiperiodic leveled-wave structure with well-defined reciprocal space and random real space distribution can be engineered to open a complete photonic bandgap (CPBG) for any refractive-index contrast. For these structures, an analytical estimation is derived, which predicts that there is an optimal number of Bragg peaks for any refractive-index contrast. A finite 2D or 3D CPBG is expected at this optimal number even for an arbitrarily small refractive-index contrast. Results of numerical simulations of dipole emission in 2D and 3D structures support the estimations. In 3D simulations, an emission suppression of almost 10 dB is demonstrated with a refractive index down to 1.38. The 3D structures are realized by additive manufacturing on millimeter scale for a material with a refractive index of n approximate to 1.59. Measurements confirm a strong suppression of microwave transmission in the expected frequency range.

Visualizing eigenmodes is crucial in understanding the behavior of state-of-the-art micromechanical devices. We demonstrate a method to optically map multiple modes of mechanical structures simultaneously. The fast and robust method, based on a modified phase-lock loop, is demonstrated on a silicon nitride membrane and shown to outperform three alternative approaches. Line traces and two-dimensional maps of different modes are acquired. The high quality data enables us to determine the weights of individual contributions in superpositions of degenerate modes.

Aluminum nitride (AlN) is an emerging material for integrated quantum photonics with its excellent linear and nonlinear optical properties. In particular, its second-order nonlinear susceptibility χ(2) allows single-photon generation. We have grown AlN thin films on silicon nitride (Si3N4) via reactive DC magnetron sputtering. The thin films have been characterized using x-ray diffraction (XRD), optical reflectometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and scanning electron microscopy. The crystalline properties of the thin films have been improved by optimizing the nitrogen to argon ratio and the magnetron DC power of the deposition process. XRD measurements confirm the fabrication of high-quality c-axis oriented AlN films with a full width at half maximum of the rocking curves of 3.9° for 300 nm-thick films. AFM measurements reveal a root mean square surface roughness below 1 nm. The AlN deposition on SiN allows us to fabricate hybrid photonic circuits with a new approach that avoids the challenging patterning of AlN.

We demonstrate sputtering of high-quality aluminum nitride films onto prefabricated silicon nitride photonic circuits, simplifying their nanofabrication. Hybrid microring devices show reduced bending loss and low propagation losses, enabling future on-chip quantum optics experiments.

Recent developments in quantum computing and the growing interest in optomechanics and quantum optics need platforms that enable rapid prototyping and scalability. This can be fulfilled by on-chip integration, as we present here. The different nanofabrication steps are explained, and our automated measurement setup is discussed. We present an opto-electromechanical device, the H-resonator, which enables optomechanical experiments such as electrostatic springs and nonlinearities and thermomechanical squeezing. Moreover, it also functions as an optomechanical phase shifter, an essential element for our integrated quantum optics efforts. Besides this, the equivalent of a beam splitter in photonics-the directional coupler-is shown. Its coupling ratio can be reliably controlled, as we show with experimental data. Several directional couplers combined can realize the CNOT operation with almost ideal fidelity.