Device‐Level Photonic Memories and Logic Applications Using Phase‐Change Materials

Inspired by the great success of fiber optics in ultrafast data transmission, photonic computing is being extensively studied as an alternative to replace or hybridize electronic computers, which are reaching speed and bandwidth limitations. Mimicking and implementing basic computing elements on photonic devices is a first and essential step toward all‐optical computers. Here, an optical pulse‐width modulation (PWM) switching of phase‐change materials on an integrated waveguide is developed, which allows practical implementation of photonic memories and logic devices. It is established that PWM with low peak power is very effective for recrystallization of phase‐change materials, in terms of both energy efficiency and process control. Using this understanding, multilevel photonic memories with complete random accessibility are then implemented. Finally, programmable optical logic devices are demonstrated conceptually and experimentally, with logic “OR” and “NAND” achieved on just a single integrated photonic phase‐change cell. This study provides a practical and elegant technique to optically program photonic phase‐change devices for computing applications.     

Recent Advances of Spatial Self‐Phase Modulation in 2D Materials and Passive Photonic Device Applications

Optical nonlinearity in 2D materials excited by spatial Gaussian laser beam is a novel and peculiar optical phenomenon, which exhibits many novel and interesting applications in optical nonlinear devices. Passive photonic devices, such as optical switches, optical logical gates, photonic diodes, and optical modulators, are the key compositions in the future all‐optical signal‐processing technologies. Passive photonic devices using 2D materials to achieve the device functionality have attracted widespread concern in the past decade. In this Review, an overview of the spatial self‐phase modulation (SSPM) in 2D materials is summarized, including the operating mechanism, optical parameter measurement, and tuning for 2D materials, and applications in photonic devices. Moreover, some current challenges are also proposed to solve, and some possible applications of SSPM method are predicted for the future. Therefore, it is anticipated that this summary can contribute to the application of 2D material‐based spatial effect in all‐optical signal‐processing technologies.     

All-optical digital 4 × 2 encoder based on 2D photonic crystal ring resonators

The photonic crystals draw significant attention to build all-optical logic devices and are considered one of the solutions for the opto-electronic bottleneck via speed and size. The paper presents a novel optical 4 × 2 encoder based on 2D square lattice photonic crystals of silicon rods. The main realization of optical encoder is based on the photonic crystal ring resonator NOR gates. The proposed structure has four logic input ports, two output ports, and two bias input port. The photonic crystal structure has a square lattice of silicon rods with a refractive index of 3.39 in air. The structure has lattice constant ‘a’ equal to 630 nm and bandgap range from 0.32 to 044. The total size of the proposed 4 × 2 encoder is equal to 35 μm × 35 μm. The simulation results using the dimensional finite difference time domain and Plane Wave Expansion methods confirm the operation and the feasibility of the proposed optical encoder for ultrafast optical digital circuits.     

Single‐Stimulus‐Induced Modulation of Multiple Optical Properties

Stimuli‐responsive smart optical materials hold great promise for applications in active optics, display, sensing, energy conversion, military camouflage, and artificial intelligence. However, their applications are greatly restricted by the difficulty of tuning different optical properties within the same material, especially by a single stimulus. Here, magnetic modulations of multiple optical properties are demonstrated in a crystalline colloidal array (CCA) of magnetic nanorods. Small‐angle X‐ray scattering studies reveal that these nanorods form an unusual monoclinic crystal in concentrated suspensions. The CCA exhibits optical anisotropy in the form of a photonic bandgap and birefringence, thus enabling magnetic tuning of the structural color and transmittance at a rate of 50 Hz. As a proof‐of‐concept, it is further demonstrated that the fabrication of a multifunctional device for display, anticounterfeiting, and smart‐window applications based on this multiple magneto‐optical effect. The study not only provides a new model system for understanding colloidal assembly, but also opens up opportunities for new applications of smart optical materials for various purposes.     

Polymer‐Based Optical Waveguides: Materials,Processing, and Devices

Polymer optical waveguide devices will play a key role in several rapidly developing areas of broadband communications, such as optical networking, metropolitan/access communications, and computing systems due to their easier processibility and integration over inorganic counterparts. The combined advantages also makes them an ideal integration platform where foreign material systems such as YIG (yttrium iron garnet) and lithium niobate, and semiconductor devices such as lasers, detectors, amplifiers, and logic circuits can be inserted into an etched groove in a planar lightwave circuit to enable full amplifier modules or optical add/drop multiplexers on a single substrate. Moreover, the combination of flexibility and toughness in optical polymers makes it suitable for vertical integration to realize 3D and even all‐polymer integrated optics. In this review, a survey of suitable optical polymer systems, their processing techniques, and the integrated optical waveguide components and circuits derived from these materials is summarized. The first part is focused on discussing the characteristics of several important classes of optical polymers, such as their refractive index, optical loss, processibility/mechanical properties, and environmental performance. Then, the emphasis is placed on the discussion of several novel passive and active (electro‐optic and thermo‐optic) polymer systems and versatile processing techniques commonly used for fabricating component devices, such as photoresist‐based patterning, direct lithographic patterning, and soft lithography. At the end, a series of compelling polymer optical waveguide devices including optical interconnects, directional couplers, array waveguide grating (AWG) multi/demultiplexers, switches, tunable filters, variable optical attenuators (VOAs), and amplifiers are reviewed. Several integrated planar lightwave circuits, such as tunable optical add/drop multiplexers (OADMs), photonic crystal superprism waveguides, digital optical switches (DOSs) integrated with VOAs, traveling‐wave heterojunction phototransistors, and three‐dimensionally (3D) integrated optical devices are also highlighted.     

Recent Progress in Nanolaser Technology

Nanolasers are key elements in the implementation of optical integrated circuits owing to their low lasing thresholds, high energy efficiencies, and high modulation speeds. With the development of semiconductor wafer growth and nanofabrication techniques, various types of wavelength-scale and subwavelength-scale nanolasers have been proposed. For example, photonic crystal lasers and plasmonic lasers based on the feedback mechanisms of the photonic bandgap and surface plasmon polaritons, respectively, have been successfully demonstrated. More recently, nanolasers employing new mechanisms of light confinement, including parity–time symmetry lasers, photonic topological insulator lasers, and bound states in the continuum lasers, have been developed. Here, the operational mechanisms, optical characterizations, and practical applications of these nanolasers based on recent research results are outlined. Their scientific and engineering challenges are also discussed.     

Sensitive photonic crystal phase logic gates

Total optical phase logic gates are reported in this paper. They are constructed by coupled-defect photonic crystal after two problems are overcome by a heterostructure or an asymmetric structure. Both half and all-phase logic gates are discussed. The sensitivity of these total optical phase logic gates not only are two orders sensitive than those using amplitude-signal, but also have many other advantages: such as very low energy cost. By using such phase logic gates, only a continued wave laser with one frequency is sufficient to operate the phase logic gate or the whole optical integrated circuit.     

Silicon‐Based Photonic Crystals

Photonic crystals can be thought of as optical analogues of semiconductors. Here recent advances in photonic crystals based on silicon are reviewed. After summarizing the theory of photonic bandgap materials, the preparation and linear optical properties of 1D, 2D, and 3D silicon‐based photonic crystals are discussed. Laterally structured porous silicon with a defect line is shown in the Figure.     

Biomaterial‐Based “Structured Opals” with Programmable Combination of Diffractive Optical Elements and Photonic Bandgap Effects

Naturally occurring iridescent systems produce brilliant color displays through multiscale, hierarchical assembly of structures that combine reflective, diffractive, diffusive, or absorbing domains. The fabrication of biopolymer‐based, hierarchical 3D photonic crystals through the use of a topographical templating strategy that allows combined optical effects derived from the interplay of predesigned 2D and 3D geometries is reported here. This biomaterials‐based approach generates 2D diffractive optics composed of 3D nanophotonic lattices that allow simultaneous control over the reflection (through the 3D photonic bandgap) and the transmission (through 2D diffractive structuring) of light with the additional utility of being constituted by a biocompatible, implantable, edible commodity textile material. The use of biopolymers allows additional degrees of freedom in photonic bandgap design through directed protein conformation modulation. Demonstrator structures are presented to illustrate the lattice multifunctionality, including tunable diffractive properties, increased angle of view of photonic crystals, color‐mixing, and sensing applications.     

A Solution‐Processed Ultrafast Optical Switch Based on a Nanostructured Epsilon‐Near‐Zero Medium

All the optical properties of materials are derived from dielectric function. In spectral region where the dielectric permittivity approaches zero, known as epsilon‐near‐zero (ENZ) region, the propagating light within the material attains a very high phase velocity, and meanwhile the material exhibits strong optical nonlinearity. The interplay between the linear and nonlinear optical response in these materials thus offers unprecedented pathways for all‐optical control and device design. Here the authors demonstrate ultrafast all‐optical modulation based on a typical ENZ material of indium tin oxide (ITO) nanocrystals (NCs), accessed by a wet‐chemistry route. In the ENZ region, the authors find that the optical response in these ITO NCs is associated with a strong nonlinear character, exhibiting sub‐picosecond response time (corresponding to frequencies over 2 THz) and modulation depth up to ≈160%. This large optical nonlinearity benefits from the highly confined geometry in addition to the ENZ enhancement effect of the ITO NCs. Based on these ENZ NCs, the authors successfully demonstrate a fiber optical switch that allows switching of continuous laser wave into femtosecond laser pulses. Combined with facile processibility and tunable optical properties, these solution‐processed ENZ NCs may offer a scalable and printable material solution for dynamic photonic and optoelectronic devices.     

Two‐Terminal Multibit Optical Memory via van der Waals Heterostructure

2D van der Waals (vdWs) heterostructures exhibit intriguing optoelectronic properties in photodetectors, solar cells, and light‐emitting diodes. In addition, these materials have the potential to be further extended to optical memories with promising broadband applications for image sensing, logic gates, and synaptic devices for neuromorphic computing. In particular, high programming voltage, high off‐power consumption, and circuital complexity in integration are primary concerns in the development of three‐terminal optical memory devices. This study describes a multilevel nonvolatile optical memory device with a two‐terminal floating‐gate field‐effect transistor with a MoS₂/hexagonal boron nitride/graphene heterostructure. The device exhibits an extremely low off‐current of ≈10^?14 A and high optical switching on/off current ratio of over ≈10⁶, allowing 18 distinct current levels corresponding to more than four‐bit information storage. Furthermore, it demonstrates an extended endurance of over ≈10⁴ program–erase cycles and a long retention time exceeding 3.6 × 10⁴ s with a low programming voltage of ?10 V. This device paves the way for miniaturization and high‐density integration of future optical memories with vdWs heterostructures.     

Solution‐Processed Lead Iodide for Ultrafast All‐Optical Switching of Terahertz Photonic Devices

Solution‐processed lead iodide (PbI₂) governs the charge transport characteristics in the hybrid metal halide perovskites. Besides being a precursor in enhancing the performance of perovskite solar cells, PbI₂ alone offers remarkable optical and ultrasensitive photoresponsive properties that remain largely unexplored. Here, the photophysics and the ultrafast carrier dynamics of the solution processed PbI₂ thin film is probed experimentally. A PbI₂ integrated metamaterial photonic device with switchable picosecond time response at extremely low photoexcitation fluences is demonstrated. Further, findings show strongly confined terahertz field induced tailoring of sensitivity and switching time of the metamaterial resonances for different thicknesses of PbI₂ thin film. The approach has two far reaching consequences: the first lead‐iodide‐based ultrafast photonic device and resonantly confined electromagnetic field tailored transient nonequilibrium dynamics of PbI₂ which could also be applied to a broad range of semiconductors for designing on‐chip, ultrafast, all‐optical switchable photonic devices.     

Tetragonal Single‐Crystalline Boron Nanowires with Strong Anisotropic Light Scattering Behaviors and Photocurrent Response in Visible‐Light Regime

Boron is a narrow‐bandgap (1.56 eV) semiconductor with high melting‐point, low‐density, large Young's modulus and very high refractive index (3.03) close to silicon. Therefore, boron nanostructures is expected to possess strong visible‐light scattering properties. However, photonic and optoelectronic properties of the boron nanostructures are seldom studied until now. In this paper, we have successfully prepared single‐crystalline boron nanowire (BNW) arrays with high‐density on Si substrate. All the BNWs are found to possess strong light‐scattering behaviors in the visible regime. Most of all, the scattered light is found to polarize along the longitudinal direction of the nanowire. They also have excellent second‐harmonic generation (SHG) properties under ultrafast laser irradiation. Further optoelectronic measurements show that an individual BNW device exhibits notable photocurrent responses in the visible‐light range at ambient conditions, which can be attributed to the strong coupling effect between individual BNW and the visible light. The maximum photoresponsivity of an individual BNW can reach up to 12.12 A W^–1 at a voltage of 10 V, and the response time is only 18 ms. Therefore, it unveils that the BNWs have a promising future in visible‐light communications and detections.     

A scheme of developing frequency encoded tristate-optical logic operations using semiconductor optical amplifier

The ever increasing demand for very fast and agile optical networks requires very fast execution of different optical and logical operations as well as large information handling capacities at the same time. In conventional binary logic based operations the information is represented by two distinct states only (0 and 1 state). It limits the large information handling capacity and speed of different arithmetic and optical logic operations. Tristate based logic operations can be accommodated with optics successfully in data processing, as this type of operation can enhance the speed of operation as well as increase the information handling capacity. Here in this communication the author proposes a new method to implement all-optical different logic gates with tristate logic using the frequency-encoding principle. The frequency encoding/decoding based optical communication has distinctly great advantages because the frequency is the fundamental character of an optical signal and it preserves its identity throughout the communication. The principle of the rotation of the state of polarization of a probe beam through semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA), frequency routing property of an optical add/drop multiplexer (AD) and high frequency conversion property of reflecting semiconductor optical amplifiers (RSOA) have been exploited here to implement the desired AND, OR, NAND and NOR logic operations with tristate logic.     

Nonvolatile Electrically Reconfigurable Integrated Photonic Switch Enabled by a Silicon PIN Diode Heater

Reconfigurability of photonic integrated circuits (PICs) has become increasingly important due to the growing demands for electronic–photonic systems on a chip driven by emerging applications, including neuromorphic computing, quantum information, and microwave photonics. Success in these fields usually requires highly scalable photonic switching units as essential building blocks. Current photonic switches, however, mainly rely on materials with weak, volatile thermo-optic or electro-optic modulation effects, resulting in large footprints and high energy consumption. As a promising alternative, chalcogenide phase-change materials (PCMs) exhibit strong optical modulation in a static, self-holding fashion, but the scalability of present PCM-integrated photonic applications is still limited by the poor optical or electrical actuation approaches. Here, with phase transitions actuated by in situ silicon PIN diode heaters, scalable nonvolatile electrically reconfigurable photonic switches using PCM-clad silicon waveguides and microring resonators are demonstrated. As a result, intrinsically compact and energy-efficient switching units operated with low driving voltages, near-zero additional loss, and reversible switching with high endurance are obtained in a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible process. This work can potentially enable very large-scale CMOS-integrated programmable electronic–photonic systems such as optical neural networks and general-purpose integrated photonic processors.     

Highly Flexible Hybrid CMOS Inverter Based on Si Nanomembrane and Molybdenum Disulfide

2D semiconductor materials are being considered for next generation electronic device application such as thin‐film transistors and complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) circuit due to their unique structural and superior electronics properties. Various approaches have already been taken to fabricate 2D complementary logics circuits. However, those CMOS devices mostly demonstrated based on exfoliated 2D materials show the performance of a single device. In this work, the design and fabrication of a complementary inverter is experimentally reported, based on a chemical vapor deposition MoS₂ n‐type transistor and a Si nanomembrane p‐type transistor on the same substrate. The advantages offered by such CMOS configuration allow to fabricate large area wafer scale integration of high performance Si technology with transition‐metal dichalcogenide materials. The fabricated hetero‐CMOS inverters which are composed of two isolated transistors exhibit a novel high performance air‐stable voltage transfer characteristic with different supply voltages, with a maximum voltage gain of ≈16, and sub‐nano watt power consumption. Moreover, the logic gates have been integrated on a plastic substrate and displayed reliable electrical properties paving a realistic path for the fabrication of flexible/transparent CMOS circuits in 2D electronics.     

Hot‐Electron‐Assisted Femtosecond All‐Optical Modulation in Plasmonics

The optical Kerr nonlinearity of plasmonic metals provides enticing prospects for developing reconfigurable and ultracompact all‐optical modulators. In nanostructured metals, the coherent coupling of light energy to plasmon resonances creates a nonequilibrium electron distribution at an elevated electron temperature that gives rise to significant Kerr optical nonlinearities. Although enhanced nonlinear responses of metals facilitate the realization of efficient modulation devices, the intrinsically slow relaxation dynamics of the photoexcited carriers, primarily governed by electron–phonon interactions, impedes ultrafast all‐optical modulation. Here, femtosecond (≈190 fs) all‐optical modulation in plasmonic systems via the activation of relaxation pathways for hot electrons at the interface of metals and electron acceptor materials, following an on‐resonance excitation of subradiant lattice plasmon modes, is demonstrated. Both the relaxation kinetics and the optical nonlinearity can be actively tuned by leveraging the spectral response of the plasmonic design in the linear regime. The findings offer an opportunity to exploit hot‐electron‐induced nonlinearities for design of self‐contained, ultrafast, and low‐power all‐optical modulators based on plasmonic platforms.     

Implementation of high speed optical universal logic gates using the electro-optic effect-based Mach–Zehnder interferometer structures

The universal logic gates are the most important logic gates responsible for optimized design of different types of complex digital logic circuits. It is of great interest to implement the function of universal logic gates such as NAND and NOR logic gates using the concepts of electro-optic effect. The smart use of electro-optic effect can provide very effective optical power switching devices. The implementation of universal logic gates operation in the optical domain can improve the performance of the devices and includes the advantages of the optical communication system. The proper configuration of Mach–Zehnder interferometer working on the principle of electro-optic effect can provide the optical responses equivalent to the NAND and NOR logic gates. The proposed devices can be analyzed to check the various performance affecting parameters in order to specify the physical parameters.     

Ultrafast All‐Optical Switching of Germanium‐Based Flexible Metaphotonic Devices

Incorporating semiconductors as active media into metamaterials offers opportunities for a wide range of dynamically switchable/tunable, technologically relevant optical functionalities enabled by strong, resonant light–matter interactions within the semiconductor. Here, a germanium‐thin‐film‐based flexible metaphotonic device for ultrafast optical switching of terahertz radiation is experimentally demonstrated. A resonant transmission modulation depth of 90% is achieved, with an ultrafast full recovery time of 17 ps. An observed sub‐picosecond decay constant of 670 fs is attributed to the presence of trap‐assisted recombination sites in the thermally evaporated germanium film.     

Layer‐by‐Layer Approach to (2+1)D Photonic Crystal Superlattice with Enhanced Crystalline Integrity

Large‐area polystyrene (PS) colloidal monolayers with high mechanical strength are created by a combination of the air/water interface self‐assembly and the solvent vapor annealing technique. Layer‐by‐layer (LBL) stacking of these colloidal monolayers leads to the formation of (2+1)D photonic crystal superlattice with enhanced crystalline integrity. By manipulating the diameter of PS spheres and the repetition period of the colloidal monolayers, flexible control in structure and stop band position of the (2+1)D photonic crystal superlattice has been realized, which may afford new opportunities for engineering photonic bandgap materials. Furthermore, an enhancement of 97.3% on light output power of a GaN‐based light emitting diode is demonstrated when such a (2+1)D photonic crystal superlattice employed as a back reflector. The performance enhancement is attributed to the photonic bandgap enhancement and good angle‐independence of the (2+1)D photonic crystal superlattice.