Foundry-compatible Isolators based on Lithium-niobate Electro-optic Transducers (FILET)

The development of foundry-compatible optical isolators is critical for ensuring the robust manufacturing of quantum sensor and position, navigation, and timing instrumentation within the defense industry. Precision measurements rely on laser systems that require optical isolators to prevent unwanted back-reflections from destabilizing or even damaging the laser component. As the size, weight, power and cost (SWaP-C) of laser systems decrease with the advent of mass-manufacturable photonic chip technologies, the development of on-chip optical isolators are of critical importance. To address this issue, Physical Sciences, Inc. (PSI) and Harvard University will demonstrate Foundry-compatible Isolators based on a Lithium-niobate Electro-optic Transducer (FILET). Our FILET units will be fabricated using commercial wafer-scale processing and demonstrate ultra-broadband optical isolators with low insertion loss and high back-reflection extinction.