Second Order Nonlinear Photonic Integrated Platforms for Optical Signal Processing

Photonic integrated circuits have found a remarkable range of applications in both fundamental science and commercial products. The development of photonic integrated circuits that use highly efficiency nonlinear optical materials as optical waveguides opens opportunities to achieve low power, on chip optical signal processing. In this article, we discussed the latest developments of two state-of-the-art second order nonlinear optical waveguide platforms, namely lithium niobate on insulator and aluminum gallium arsenide on insulator. We also presented some new progress we made in device performance and system integration. The demonstrated ultra-efficient conversion in those platforms paves the way for high performance optical signal processing, bringing an essential functionality from bench-top level into photonic integrated circuits.