Optomechanical Photonics on a Commercial Foundry Platform

To address the NASA need for advanced integrated photonic components, memQ proposes to create acousto-optic devices on a commercial thin film lithium niobate MPW platform. Acousto-optic devices, as enabled by lithium niobate’s strong piezoelectric effect, would allow for the creation of acousto-optic modulators, non-magnetic isolators, beam steerers, and RF-to-optical transducers. This new class of component would benefit PIC based technologies such as LiDAR, communications, quantum systems, and sensing. In phase I, the primary focus will be on developing interdigitated transducers for efficient acoustic wave coupling onto the PICs. Initial designs for the above listed devices will also be included. In phase II, the devices will be designed for specific performance targets given the results from phase I. At the end of phase II, this technology is expected to be ready (TRL-6) for development as a standard PDK component - which will be the focus of a Phase III type effort.