Integrated Platform

Photonics  uses light rather than electrons to perform varieties of applications. Silicon photonics, in particular, has gained a lot of interest in the past few decades due to its unique ability to utilize standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor manufacturing processes and materials, resulting in high density, high yield, and the massive fabrication of optical devices at low cost. Although the field has its roots in the telecommunications industry, it has expanded to many new applications such as sensing, spectroscopy, nonlinear optics, quantum optics, optomechanics, and even neuroscience. Silicon nitride, one of the mature silicon family materials has been widely used in photonics research and development. It combines the beneficial properties of a wide transparency range covering visible to mid-IR, a moderately high nonlinear refractive index which is ten times higher than silica, and semiconductor mass manufacturing compatibility. Most importantly, silicon nitride can achieve ultra-low loss and high confinement simultaneously.

Integrated Laser and Frequency Comb Generator 

Optical frequency combs can enable ultrafast processes in physics, biology, and chemistry, as well as improve communication and navigation, medical testing, and security. The Nobel Prize in Physics 2005 was awarded to the developers of laser-based precision spectroscopy, including the optical frequency comb technique, and microresonator combs have become an intense focus of research over the past decade.

In a letter published on Nature, we have demonstrated low-power chip unites lasers and frequency combs for the first time and can be powered by an AAA battery, opening the door to portable devices for a wide range of applications from spectroscopy to optical communications to LIDAR.