Abstract
Junction structures provide the foundation of digital electronics and spintronics today. An equivalent, a photonic junction to achieve systematic and drastic control of photon flow is currently missing, but is mandatory for serious all-optical signal processing. Here we propose a photonic junction built upon mode-orthogonal hetero-structures, as a fundamental structural unit for photonic integrated circuits. Controlling the optical potential of mode-orthogonal junctions, the flow of photons can be dynamically manipulated, to complete the correspondence to the electronic junction structures. Of the possible applications, we provide examples of a photonic junction diode and a multi-junction half-adder, with exceptional performance metrics. Highly directional (41dB), nearly unity throughput, ultra-low threshold-power, high quality signal regeneration at 200Gb/s, and all-optic logic operations are successfully derived with the self-induced, bi-level dynamic mode-conversion process across the junction.
Highlights
The ultrafast, distortion-free optical communication of today owes its remarkable success in large part to the time-reversal symmetry of Maxwell’s equations and the charge-less nature of photons, that providing untainted linearity for optical materials and devices
To incorporate the junction structure into the photonic domain - notwithstanding the absence of charge or reference energy, we focus our attention to the wave nature of photons; especially related to the orthogonality between their well-defined and plentiful eigenmodes
Understanding that the above listed performance merits are derived from one specific example in a photonic crystal platform, it would be of interest to explore the performance boundaries of the Ψe-o-ψo junction diode having resonators of different Q factors
Summary
The ultrafast, distortion-free optical communication of today owes its remarkable success in large part to the time-reversal symmetry of Maxwell’s equations and the charge-less nature of photons, that providing untainted linearity for optical materials and devices. Nonlinearity being the core in the realization of logic devices, serious effort is in progress to enhance the nonlinearity. Systematic and controllable change to the asymmetric electrical potential (or spin orientation) across [19,20,21], the junction has enabled highly advanced, non-reciprocal and nonlinear manipulation for the transport of electrons - the core attributes in the realization of diode, transistor, and logic processors in the electronics / spintronics of today. By exploiting the rich and well-defined orthogonal modes which provide abundant degrees of freedom for the choice of junctions (having different spectral mode-overlap and frequency separation), the modular construction of highly nonlinear devices with systematic control of wave propagation is enabled. For [28], external modulation power), a high quality signal regeneration [16,29] at 200Gb/s, and all-optical AND, XOR operations are successfully demonstrated
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