Integrated Optical Circulator and Isolator

ABSTRACT:Heavily leveraging fabrication and processing technology from the semiconductor industry, significant advances have been made in the area of photonic integration. As many of the functions currently implemented electronically are replaced with optical elements, these photonic integrated circuits (PICs) enable new capabilities and reduction in size, weight, and power consumption (SWaP). One optical function that has proven difficult to integrate is optical isolation where the optical transmission or insertion loss through a component is highly direction dependent. Isolators are critical elements for optical systems, since backscattered light creates noise and laser source instability, particularly in integrated platforms where the potential for backscattering increases with device density. The optical isolators and circulator to be developed in this program are also useful for true time delay (TTD) for radar beam forming from phased arrays and communications where bi-directionally propagating signals must be separated. In this project, Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) will team with the research groups of Profs. Juejun Hu and Caroline Ross at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) to develop, demonstrate, and commercialize a fully integrated three-port optical circulator based on thin-film magneto-optic crystalline material coupled to silicon waveguides.BENEFIT:The integrated optical circulator technology to be developed in this effort will be an enabling component for photonic integrated circuits by reducing optical reflections and separating bidirectional signals. The technology will improve capabilities in communications, signal processing, sensing, and advanced electronic systems such as radar. Replacing key subsystems with optical equivalents will enable increased efficiency, reduced size, and enhanced performance.