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arXiv · 2603.02584

Ultra-low loss piezo-optomechanical low-confinement silicon nitride platform for visible wavelength quantum photonic circuits

Mayank Mishra·Gwangho Choi·Wenhua He·Gina M. Talcott·Katherine Kearney·Michael Gehl·Andrew Leenheer·Daniel Dominguez·Nils T. Otterstrom·Matt Eichenfield
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Abstract

Realizing photonic quantum computing at scale requires integrated circuits that combine ultra-low loss with fast, low-power, low-hysteresis, and low-crosstalk reconfiguration. These requirements are particularly challenging at visible wavelengths, where many quantum resource-state generators, including single-photon sources and quantum memories, naturally operate. Low-confinement silicon nitride waveguides offer the requisite loss performance, but conventional thermo-optic modulators dissipate significant static power, driving thermal crosstalk and precluding cryogenic operation. Visible-wavelength piezo-optomechanical circuits avoid these drawbacks, but existing demonstrations rely either on high-confinement waveguides with propagation losses of 35-100 dB/m, or on low-confinement platforms using foundry-incompatible PZT. Here we combine piezo-optomechanical actuation with a CMOS-foundry-fabricated, low-confinement silicon nitride platform, achieving 2.6 dB/m propagation loss at 780 nm, megahertz-scale modulation bandwidth, a half-wave voltage-length product of 2.8 Vm, and negligible hysteresis. We demonstrate reconfigurable Mach-Zehnder interferometers with 0.63 dB loss per spiral phase shifter, enabling deep, actively reconfigurable visible-wavelength quantum photonic circuits.

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Mayank Mishra, Gwangho Choi, Wenhua He, Gina M. Talcott, Katherine Kearney, Michael Gehl, Andrew Leenheer, Daniel Dominguez, Nils T. Otterstrom, Matt Eichenfield. 2026-03-03. Ultra-low loss piezo-optomechanical low-confinement silicon nitride platform for visible wavelength quantum photonic circuits. https://arxiv.org/abs/2603.02584

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