arXiv subjects

Ian Christen

Publications and source records attributed to Ian Christen.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Ultra-broadband integrated optical parametric amplifier for quantum sensing

Although thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) facilitates efficient signal generation and nonlinear and quantum interactions, the realization of optical parametric amplification (OPA) that can provide simultaneous ultra-broadband and high-gain operation in an integrated chip continues to pose a challenge. Here we demonstrate continuous-wave-pumped OPA in an X-cut MgO-doped, dispersion-engineered, and adaptively-poled TFLN waveguide of 1.6 cm length, achieving a flat-top profile covering a 450 nm-wide optical wavelength window, corresponding to a 3-dB gain bandwidth of about 56 THz. Among reported TFLN platforms, our device exhibits the broadest 3-dB gain bandwidth. The same device can be pumped either directly at visible wavelengths through second-order x(2) interactions or in the telecom band through cascaded x(2) processes, the latter eliminating the need for a high-power visible pump laser. We achieve maximum gains of 8.87 +- 0.39 dB and 10.79 +- 0.43 dB at on-chip pump powers of 74 mW and 170 mW for the direct and cascaded schemes, respectively. We further directly probe OPA gain across the 1650-1900 nm wavelength range, where experimental gain measurements have remained scarce. With a normalized on-chip gain of 1.21 dB per W per mm, our device sets a new benchmark among reported cascaded x(2) nonlinear processes. This work advances the realization of integrated optical parametric amplifiers, offering high efficiency, robust gain, ultra-broadband bandwidth, and continuous-wave operation, thereby enabling new capabilities for next-generation quantum sensing and photonic systems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

Full-Stack High-Volume Quantum Networking Architecture based on Photonic-Integrated Tin Vacancy Centers in Diamond

Solid state quantum emitters are a leading platform for photonic quantum networking with memory nodes. However, the inhomogeneous distribution of quantum emitters, as well as several environmental factors (i.e. strain and electric fields) spread the frequency spectrum of the qubits, making them distinguishable and therefore not a reliable resource for distributed quantum entanglement. In this paper, we demonstrate a full-stack approach to integrating nearly indistinguishable tin vacancy (SnV$^-$) quantum emitters on a frequency-tunable photonic interposer that overcomes the native distribution and static variation of quantum emitters for an indistinguishable photonic quantum networking platform. We demonstrate a silicon nitride-on-insulator photonic integrated circuit (PIC) with accompanying multiphysics digital twin (MPhDT) that guides discovery of SnV$^-$ strain-tuning parameters and informs construction of a multi-channel quantum repeater node. On this node, we achieve the first simultaneous demonstration of spectral tuning of the zero phonon line (ZPL) at GHz scale; coherent electron spin control with gate times of $<80$ ns; strongly- and weakly-coupled nuclear spin detection; and commercial fiber array-coupled readout of a SnV$^-$ center. Finally, we propose and simulate improvements to the architecture that achieve 99.96% connectivity of $ N \sim 1000$ emitters spanning the inhomogeneous distribution of SnV$^-$ centers in strained diamond, where distributed quantum entanglement may be realized.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2026

Few-cycle electro-optic light on thin-film lithium niobate

The twin fields of ultrafast optics and nonlinear photonics enable applications ranging from attosecond science [1, 2] and ultrafast electronics [3] to molecular spectroscopy [4, 5], nonlinear optics [6-8], quantum nanophotonics [9] and precision metrology [10]. However, bringing these capabilities-including ultrashort pulse generation, dispersion control, and strong nonlinear interactions-together within a scalable photonic integrated platform requires exceptional performance and cooperation between components while preserving sufficient optical power across the circuit. Here we demonstrate an integrated multi-functional nonlinear photonic system that transforms continuous-wave (CW) light into high-peak-power femtosecond pulses and harnesses them for pulse-driven nonlinear optics on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). Microwave-driven electro-optic (EO) broadening followed by integrated dispersive compression generates 230-fs Fourier-transform-limited pulses with energies up to 3.3 pJ at 30.7 GHz, representing orders of magnitude higher pulse energy than previous integrated pulse synthesis at comparable repetition rates [11]. In a 0.3-meter dispersion-engineered TFLN waveguide, soliton dynamics compress the pulses to 35 fs (6.7 optical cycles), accompanied by coherent spectral broadening exceeding 330 nm. In a fully-monolithic architecture, EO synthesis, dispersive compression and a high-Q nonlinear resonator are integrated on a single TFLN chip, enabling resonantly-enhanced pulse pumping and coherent spectral broadening at pulse energies as low as 400 fJ. By unifying microwave-controlled pulse synthesis and pulse-driven nonlinear interactions, our work establishes a direct path from CW excitation to few-cycle nonlinear optics on chip, with opportunities spanning microwave photonics [12], optical frequency synthesis and metrology, and mid-infrared and terahertz generation [13, 14].

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

80 Channel Photon Pair Source from a Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Racetrack Microresonator

Nanophotonic platforms have multiple properties and features desirable for producing correlated photon pairs. In these platforms, spontaneous parametric down-conversion (SPDC) and spontaneous four-wave-mixing (SFWM) have been used to achieve photon pair production. By placing the nonlinear region in a resonant cavity, the source obtains an enhanced nonlinear interaction and naturally filters out photons by frequency according to the cavity linewidth. Among various platforms, X-cut thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) stands out for its strong second-order optical nonlinearity ($\chi^{(2)}$) and access to a strong platform for modulating light. Although previously demonstrated, present sources are limited in their photon pair channel availability, limiting the potential of quantum applications in quantum information processing, communication, and sensing that can scale in robustness by having access to multiple photon pair channels. To this end, we demonstrate a photon pair source on X-cut TFLN with 80 measured photon pair channels spanning the C and L optical bands with a frequency spacing of 49.5 GHz between photons. We characterize the second-order correlation function and pair generation rate (PGR) of 80 channels, the highest number of channels demonstrated to date, and achieve a pair generation of 125.7 kHz / {\mu}W after accounting for the cavity's escape efficiency. We also demonstrate heralded single photon operation by calculating a heralded auto-correlation dip of 0.0544 $\pm$ 0.0054 with 2.2 mW of on-chip pump power. These findings demonstrate the promise of X-cut TFLN as a strong platform for quantum optical applications.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2026

18-dB on-chip vacuum squeezing in an adaptively poled lithium niobate waveguide

Quantum squeezed states of light can enhance measurement sensitivity beyond classical limits and enable quantum information processing, but scalable low-loss sources remain challenging. We demonstrate continuous-wave quantum squeezing on a chip, achieving 18 dB of squeezing and 20 dB of anti-squeezing at 1570 nm in a 1.6-cm traveling-wave adaptively poled thin-film lithium niobate waveguide. A distributed model independently determines facet losses, phase noise, and nonlinear interaction strength without prior assumptions, enabling rigorous inference of on-chip performance. We estimate a 95% confidence interval of [-18.96, -17.25] dB squeezing and [19.96, 21.35] dB anti-squeezing. These values represent the highest squeezing reported for any integrated photonic platform and the first assumption-free statistical validation of integrated squeezing performance. Our results establish thin-film lithium niobate as a high-performance, scalable platform for continuous-variable quantum sensing, communications, and photonic computing.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

Fundamental Phase Noise in Thin Film Lithium Niobate Resonators

Fundamental phase noise in thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) photonic integrated circuits is governed by thermal-charge-carrier-refractive (TCCR) dynamics arising from thermally driven carrier fluctuations. In contrast to the predominantly thermorefractive noise in silicon photonic platforms, TCCR noise represents a distinct mechanism that becomes critical for applications requiring high frequency stability and phase coherence, including optomechanical sensing, low-phase-noise microwave synthesis, and on-chip quantum squeezing. A quantitative understanding of the deterministic parameters that control TCCR noise is therefore essential for engineering the next generation of low-noise TFLN photonic systems. Here, we identify two dominant contributors to the TCCR noise in TFLN microresonators: material anisotropy and surface states. Material anisotropy results in increased noise for extraordinarily polarized optical modes and leads to a geometry dependent phase noise. Surface-state effects manifest as increased noise in higher-order transverse modes as well as more than 120-fold higher noise in suspended microresonators. Finally, we demonstrate that post-fabrication annealing -- widely used to reduce defect densities and recover crystal quality -- suppresses frequency noise by a factor of 8.2 in cladded microresonators. Together, these results establish a practical pathway for noise engineering in TFLN integrated photonic devices and accelerate their deployment in next-generation precision photonic systems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

All-Optical Photonic Crystal Bolometer with Ultra-Low Heat Capacity for Scalable Thermal Imaging

High-speed thermal imaging in the long-wave infrared (LWIR) is critical for applications from autonomous navigation to medical screening, yet existing uncooled detectors are fundamentally constrained. Resistive bolometers are limited by electronic noise and the parasitic thermal load of wired readouts, while state-of-the-art nanomechanical resonators typically rely on vacuum packaging to maintain the mechanical $Q$ needed for sensitivity. Here, we introduce and demonstrate an uncooled thermal detector that addresses these challenges via an all-optical transduction mechanism. The heterogeneously integrated pixel is engineered for minimal thermal mass, combining pyrolytic carbon absorbers for broadband LWIR absorption, hollow zirconia structures for ultra-low-conductance thermal isolation, and a silicon photonic crystal cavity that serves as a high-$Q$ optical thermometer. Operating at ambient temperature and pressure, we measure a specific detectivity of $1.1\times10^{7}$ Jones and a thermal time constant of $27~\mu \mathrm{s}$, corresponding to a speed that surpasses typical high-sensitivity uncooled technologies by an order of magnitude. Based on this detectivity measurement, which is limited by the noise floor of the external optical detection electronics, a physics-based model predicts a $>25\text{-fold}$ performance enhancement to its fundamental thermorefractive-noise-limited value ($3\times10^{8}$ Jones). The optical readout remains functional across ambient and vacuum environments. We expect this architecture to provide a general route toward scalable, high-performance thermal imaging systems.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2025

High Clockrate Free-space Optical In-Memory Computing

The ability to process and act on data in real time is increasingly critical for applications ranging from autonomous vehicles, three-dimensional environmental sensing and remote robotics. However, the deployment of deep neural networks (DNNs) in edge devices is hindered by the lack of energy-efficient scalable computing hardware. Here, we introduce a fanout spatial time-of-flight optical neural network (FAST-ONN) that calculates billions of convolutions per second with ultralow latency and power consumption. This is enabled by the combination of high-speed dense arrays of vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) for input modulation with spatial light modulators of high pixel counts for in-memory weighting. In a three-dimensional optical system, parallel differential readout allows signed weight values accurate inference in a single shot. The performance is benchmarked with feature extraction in You-Only-Look-Once (YOLO) for convolution at 100 million frames per second (MFPS), and in-system backward propagation training with photonic reprogrammability. The VCSEL transmitters are implementable in any free-space optical computing systems to improve the clockrate to over gigahertz. The high scalability in device counts and channel parallelism enables a new avenue to scale up free space computing hardware.

cs.ET↗

arXiv2025

Demonstration and Non-volatile Trimming of a Highly-Parallel, High-Capacity Silicon Microdisk Transmitter

Optical interconnects are the most promising solution to address the data-movement bottleneck in data centers. Silicon microdisks, benefiting from their compact footprint, low energy consumption, and wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) capability, have emerged as an attractive and scalable platform for optical modulation. However, microdisk resonators inherently exhibit low fabrication error tolerance, limiting their practical deployment. Here, utilizing a CMOS photonics platform, we demonstrate 1.2 Tb/s of off-die bandwidth through a 64 microdisk modulator system. In addition, we develop an automated, close-looped, non-reversible, low-loss, and picometer-precision permanent wavelength tuning technique using laser trimming. The trimming technique reduces 33 % of the energy consumption needed to thermally tune the microdisk resonant wavelength. Using this technique, we achieve a fully passive, 5-channel dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM, 50 GHz spacing) transmitter. The integration of the high speed (1.2 Tb/s), low energy consumption (29 fJ/bit) and the permanent wavelength trimming lays a robust foundation for next-generation optical interconnect systems, poised to facilitate scaling of future AI and computing hardware.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

High-Fidelity Control of a Strongly Coupled Electro-Nuclear Spin-Photon Interface

Long distance quantum networking requires combining efficient spin-photon interfaces with long-lived local memories. Group-IV color centers in diamond (SiV, GeV, and SnV) are promising candidates for this application, containing an electronic spin-photon interface and dopant nuclear spin memory. Recent work has demonstrated state-of-the-art performance in spin-photon coupling and spin-spin entanglement. However, coupling between the electron and nuclear spins introduces a phase kickback during optical excitation that limits the utility of the nuclear memory. Here, we propose using the large hyperfine coupling of SnV-117 to operate the device at zero magnetic field in a regime where the memory is insensitive to optical excitation. We further demonstrate ground state spin control of a SnV-117 color center integrated in a photonic integrated circuit, showing 97.8% gate fidelity and 2.5 ms coherence time for the memory spin level. This shows the viability of the zero-field protocol for high fidelity operation, and lays the groundwork for building quantum network nodes with SnV-117 devices.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2025

Full-volume aberration-space holography

Simultaneous, diffraction-limited control of multiple optical beams is crucial for applications ranging from lithography to optogenetics, deep tissue imaging, and tweezer-based manipulation of cells, particles, or atoms. Despite the desire to address wider fields of view, deeper volumes, and increasingly-disordered media, spatially-varying aberrations currently restrict parallelized steering to a limited "isoplanatic" region over which the point spread function is invariant. Here, we overcome this limitation by combining individual propagation kernels accounting for site-specific aberrations into a single spatial light modulator (SLM) hologram. This "aberration-space holography" unlocks precise, parallel holographic shaping over the SLM's entire Nyquist-limited volume, enabling us to realize full-field, anisoplanatic aberration compensation for the first time. By simultaneously correcting 50 isoplanatic patches with 8 principal aberration modes, we demonstrate a full-field optical tweezer array with 8x larger field of view than the best isoplanatic correction. Extending to 3D, we increase the volume of a multiphoton volumetric display by 12x. These performance enhancements are immediately accessible to a diverse range of applications through our open-source software implementation, which combines aberration-space holography with automated experimental feedback, wavefront calibration, and alignment.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2025

End-to-end physics-based modeling of laser-activated color centers in silicon

Color centers are among the most promising candidates for quantum information processing. Central requirements for their practical applications include controlled and efficient local activation in nanophotonic devices and identical spectral features. However, producing color centers in a controlled and reliable way is inherently challenging due to the lack of comprehensive theoretical insights into their formation and the difficulty of streamlining the generation process for rapid in-situ optimization. We address these challenges by developing an end-to-end first-principles model that captures the underlying formation process of color centers. Emitters are activated through laser annealing, which allows for in-situ creation and the possibility of model-based control. Notably, our model enables the estimation of the emitters' inhomogeneous broadening down to 16 GHz in bare silicon, which translates into the creation of emitters with highly similar spectral properties. Finally, we address the challenge of in-situ deterministic activation of color centers in nanophotonic devices by going beyond bare silicon and demonstrating successful laser writing in photonic crystal optical cavities. These results lay the foundation for deterministic and large-scale integration of color centers within quantum photonic platforms.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Piezoelectrically actuated high-speed spatial light modulator for visible to near-infrared wavelengths

Advancements in light modulator technology have been driving discoveries and progress across various fields. The problem of large-scale coherent optical control of atomic quantum systems-including cold atoms, ions, and solid-state color centers-presents among the most stringent requirements. This motivates a new generation of high-speed large-scale modulator technology with the following requirements: (R1) operation at a design wavelength of choice in the visible (VIS) to near-infrared (NIR) spectrum, (R2) a scalable technology with a high channel density (> 100mm-2 ), (R3) a high modulation speed (> 100MHz), and (R4) a high extinction ratio (> 20 dB). To fulfill these requirements, we introduce a modulator technology based on piezoelectrically actuated silicon nitride resonant waveguide gratings fabricated on 200mm diameter silicon wafers with CMOS compatible processes. We present a proof-of-concept device with 4 x 4 individually addressable 50 {mu}m x 50 {mu}m pixels or channels, each containing a resonant waveguide grating with a ~ 780 nm design wavelength, supporting > 100MHz modulation speeds, and a spectral response with > 20 dB extinction.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Scalable construction of hybrid quantum photonic cavities

Nanophotonic resonators are central to numerous applications, from efficient spin-photon interfaces to laser oscillators and precision sensing. A leading approach consists of photonic crystal (PhC) cavities, which have been realized in a wide range of dielectric materials. However, translating proof-of-concept devices into a functional system entails a number of additional challenges, inspiring new approaches that combine: resonators with wavelength-scale confinement and high quality factors; scalable integration with integrated circuits and photonic circuits; electrical or mechanical cavity tuning; and, in many cases, a need for heterogeneous integration with functional materials such as III-V semiconductors or diamond color centers for spin-photon interfaces. Here we introduce a concept that generates a finely tunable PhC cavity at a select wavelength between two heterogeneous optical materials whose properties satisfy the above requirements. The cavity is formed by stamping a hard-to-process material with simple waveguide geometries on top of an easy-to-process material consisting of dielectric grating mirrors and active tuning capability. We simulate our concept for the particularly challenging design problem of multiplexed quantum repeaters based on arrays of cavity-coupled diamond color centers, achieving theoretically calculated unloaded quality factors of $10^6$, mode volumes as small as $1.2(\lambda/n_{eff})^3$, and maintaining >60 percent total on-chip collection efficiency of fluorescent photons. We further introduce a method of low-power piezoelectric tuning of these hybrid diamond cavities, simulating optical resonance shifts up to ~760 GHz and color center fluorescence tuning of 5 GHz independent of cavity tuning. These results will motivate integrated photonic cavities toward larger scale systems-compatible designs.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Single-photon detectors on arbitrary photonic substrates

Detecting non-classical light is a central requirement for photonics-based quantum technologies. Unrivaled high efficiencies and low dark counts have positioned superconducting nanowire single photon detectors (SNSPDs) as the leading detector technology for fiber and integrated photonic applications. However, a central challenge lies in their integration within photonic integrated circuits regardless of material platform or surface topography. Here, we introduce a method based on transfer printing that overcomes these constraints and allows for the integration of SNSPDs onto arbitrary photonic substrates. We prove this by integrating SNSPDs and showing through-waveguide single-photon detection in commercially manufactured silicon and lithium niobate on insulator integrated photonic circuits. Our method eliminates bottlenecks to the integration of high-quality single-photon detectors, turning them into a versatile and accessible building block for scalable quantum information processing.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

A scalable cavity-based spin-photon interface in a photonic integrated circuit

A central challenge in quantum networking is transferring quantum states between different physical modalities, such as between flying photonic qubits and stationary quantum memories. One implementation entails using spin-photon interfaces that combine solid-state spin qubits, such as color centers in diamond, with photonic nanostructures. However, while high-fidelity spin-photon interactions have been demonstrated on isolated devices, building practical quantum repeaters requires scaling to large numbers of interfaces yet to be realized. Here, we demonstrate integration of nanophotonic cavities containing tin-vacancy (SnV) centers in a photonic integrated circuit (PIC). Out of a six-channel quantum micro-chiplet (QMC), we find four coupled SnV-cavity devices with an average Purcell factor of ~7. Based on system analyses and numerical simulations, we find with near-term improvements this multiplexed architecture can enable high-fidelity quantum state transfer, paving the way towards building large-scale quantum repeaters.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2024

LNoS: Lithium Niobate on Silicon Spatial Light Modulator

Programmable spatiotemporal control of light is crucial for advancements in optical communications, imaging, and quantum technologies. Commercial spatial light modulators (SLMs) typically have megapixel-scale apertures but are limited to ~kHz operational speeds. Developing a device that controls a similar number of spatial modes at high speeds could potentially transform fields such as imaging through scattering media, quantum computing with cold atoms and ions, and high-speed machine vision, but to date remains an open challenge. In this work we introduce and demonstrate a free-form, resonant electro-optic (EO) modulator with megapixel apertures using CMOS integration. The optical layer features a Lithium Niobate (LN) thin-film integrated with a photonic crystal (PhC), yielding a guided mode resonance (GMR) with a Q-factor>1000, a field overlap coefficient ~90% and a 1.6 GHz 3-dB modulation bandwidth (detector limited). To realize a free-form and scalable SLM, we fabricate the PhC via interference lithography and develop a procedure to bond the device to a megapixel CMOS backplane. We identify limitations in existing EO materials and CMOS backplanes that must be overcome to simultaneously achieve megapixel-scale, GHz-rate operation. The `LN on Silicon' (LNoS) architecture we present is a blueprint towards realizing such devices.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2023

Photonic crystal cavity IQ modulators in thin-film lithium niobate for coherent communications

Thin-Film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) is an emerging integrated photonic platform showing great promise due to its large second-order nonlinearity at microwave and optical frequencies, cryogenic compatibility, large piezoelectric response, and low optical loss at visible and near-infrared wavelengths. These properties enabled Mach-Zehnder interferometer-based devices to demonstrate amplitude- and in-phase/quadrature (IQ) modulation at voltage levels compatible with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) electronics. Maintaining low-voltage operation requires centimeter-scale device lengths, making it challenging to realize the large-scale circuits required by ever-increasing bandwidth demands in data communications. Reduced device sizes reaching the 10 um scale are possible with photonic crystal (PhC) cavities. So far, their operation has been limited to modulation of amplitudes and required circulators or lacked cascadability. Here, we demonstrate a compact IQ modulator using two PhC cavities operating as phase shifters in a Fabry-Perot-enhanced Michelson interferometer configuration. It supports cascadable amplitude and phase modulation at GHz bandwidths with CMOS-compatible voltages. While the bandwidth limitation of resonant devices is often considered detrimental, their compactness enables dense co-integration with CMOS electronics where clock-rate-level operation (few GHz) removes power-hungry electrical time-multiplexing. Recent demonstrations of chip-scale transceivers with dense-wavelength division multiplied transceivers could be monolithically implemented and driven toward ultimate information densities using TFLN electro-optic frequency combs and our PhC IQ modulators.

physics.optics↗