National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC

Other

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Harvard College

National Tech. & Eng. Solutions of Sandia, LLC

Matt Eichenfield

Michael David Henry

Roy H Olsson

Aleem Siddiqui

Christopher Nordquist

Thomas A Friedmann

Daniel Beom Soo Soh

Nils Otterstrom

Andrew Jay Leenheer

James Kenneth Douglas

Benjamin Griffin

Lisa Anne Plucinski Hackett

Dirk Robert Englund

Darren W Branch

Kenneth Wojciechowski

Anna Tauke-Pedretti

Ihab Fathy El-Kady

Khalid Mikhiel Hattar

Ryan Camacho

Erica Ann Douglas

Michael Wiwi

Brian D Homeijer

Adam Jones

Rupert M Lewis

Matthew Edwin Trusheim

Prineha Narang

Christopher Michael Long

Eric Chatterjee

Tomas Neuman

Christopher Dyck

Janet Nguyen

Galen Hoffman

Jeffrey Charles Taylor

Matthew Joseph Storey

Daniel Dominguez

Jeremy Moore

Camille Padilla

Paul Stanfield

An integrated photonics polarization controller that converts an input optical signal having a TEmode into an output optical signal having any polarization on the Poincare sphere is disclosed. This polarization conversion and control requires splitting the input optical signal into two optical signals. The first optical signal retains its TEmode, while the second optical signal must have a TMmode, with the integrated photonics polarization controller generating this TMmode either directly from the TEmode or indirectly via an intermediate signal having a TEmode. The magnitude and phase of the first and second optical signals are each controlled independently. The first and second optical signals are then combined to form an output optical signal and, due to the independent control of magnitude and phase of the first and second optical signals, the output optical signal may have any polarization on the Poincare sphere.

Integrated photonics with active polarization control

An acousto-optic modulator that includes a waveguide on an acoustic actuator is disclosed. The waveguide carries an optical signal having a UV or visible wavelength. When the acoustic actuator is activated, the optical signal in the waveguide is bathed in intense acoustic waves. By using a waveguide having the appropriate dimensions to strongly confine both the optical signal and the acoustic waves, strong optomechanical coupling may be achieved between the optical and acoustic modes, resulting in an efficient modulator. By employing either intra-modal or inter-modal conversion, the modulator may be used to implement a variety of dual- or single-sideband functions, including an isolator, a phase modulator, a single-sideband frequency shifter, or a high-extinction shutter.

Ultraviolet and visible light integrated acousto-optic modulators

Devices employing Brillouin interactions that can be modified by acoustoelectric (AE) interactions, thereby enabling control over the devices' nonlinear optical susceptibility, are described. Modification of the phonon dissipation rates through application of quasistatic electric fields in the semiconductor can improve the performance of Brillouin photonic devices. These AE Brillouin interactions allow for local control of the phonon phase velocity and thus the Brillouin scattering frequencies, providing an electronic means to compensate for inhomogeneous broadening that occurs over large length scales. Moreover, these AE Brillouin interactions allow Brillouin scattering processes to employ phonon coherence lengths that can achieve parity with and even exceed those of the photons, enabling fully coherent three-wave parametric-like processes. Devices in accordance with various aspects of the present invention have simultaneously demonstrated, using these effects, both large optomechanical confinement and coupling, and AE coupling.

Acoustoelectric optomechanical devices

Various reconfigurable phononic devices, including phase shifters, mirrors, Mach Zehnder interferometers, memories, and transducers for use in both classical and quantum computing systems are disclosed. The individual phononic devices may be combined in various configurations to implement desired, more complex functionality. The phononic devices may be coupled together to implement the desired functionality using phononic waveguides. The phononic devices include one or more phase shifters that are operationally based on either hyperelasticity or a moving boundary effect.

Reconfigurable phononic devices for classical and quantum processing systems

An acoustoelectric amplifier and a number of corresponding devices are disclosed, along with methods for making the same. The acoustoelectric amplifier employs wafer-scale bonding to heterogeneously integrate an epitaxial III-V semiconductor stack and a piezoelectric layer. To increase the acoustic gain with low power dissipation, the electromechanical coupling coefficient (k) of the piezoelectric layer should be high to increase the acoustoelectric interaction strength. The semiconductor mobility should be high to reduce the voltage required to increase the carrier drift velocity. The conductivity-thickness product should be low to prevent screening of the acoustoelectric interaction. The acoustoelectric amplifier or its corresponding material structure may be used to form circulators, isolators, oscillators, mixers, and correlators, while interconnecting waveguides may be formed of the piezoelectric layer or the semiconductor stack. An exemplary piezoelectric layer is formed of LiNbO, while an exemplary semiconductor stack is formed of InGaAs/InP.

Heterogeneously integrated acoustoelectric amplifiers

A CMOS-compatible actuator platform for implementing phase, amplitude, and frequency modulation in silicon nitride photonic integrated circuits via piezo-optomechanical coupling using tightly mechanically coupled aluminum nitride actuators is disclosed. The platform, which may be fabricated in a CMOS foundry, enables scalable active photonic integrated circuits for visible wavelengths, and the piezoelectric actuation functions without performance degradation down to cryogenic operating temperatures. A number of devices are possible, including ring modulator devices, phase shifter devices, Mach-Zehnder interferometer devices, directional coupler devices (including tunable directional coupler devices), and acousto-optic modulator and frequency shifter devices, each of which can employ the same AlN actuator platform. As all of these devices can be built on the same AlN actuator platform, numerous optical functions can be implemented on a single die.

Piezoelectric deformable photonic devices

A hybrid quantum system performs high-fidelity quantum state transduction between a superconducting (SC) microwave qubit and the ground state spin system of a solid-state artificial atom. This transduction is mediated via an acoustic bus connected by piezoelectric transducers to the SC microwave qubit. For SC circuit qubits and diamond silicon vacancy centers in an optimized phononic cavity, the system can achieve quantum state transduction with fidelity exceeding 99% at a MHz-scale bandwidth. By combining the complementary strengths of SC circuit quantum computing and artificial atoms, the hybrid quantum system provides high-fidelity qubit gates with long-lived quantum memory, high-fidelity measurement, large qubit number, reconfigurable qubit connectivity, and high-fidelity state and gate teleportation through optical quantum networks.

Phononic bus for coherent interfaces between a superconducting quantum processor, spin memory, and photonic quantum networks

The invention is directed to a device and method to engineer the superconducting transition width by suppressing the phonon populations responsible for the Cooper-pair decoherence below the superconducting transition temperature via phononic bandgap engineering. The device uses phononic crystals to engineer a phononic frequency gap that suppresses the decohering thermal phonon population just below the Cooper-frequency, and thus the normal conduction electron population. For example, such engineering can relax the cooling requirements for a variety of circuits yielding higher operational quality factors for superconducting electronics and interconnects.

Superconductivity device comprising a phononic crystal

The present invention relates to tunable microresonators, as well as methods of designing and tuning such resonators. In particular, tuning includes applying an electrical bias to the resonator, thereby shifting the resonant frequency.

Solid-state tuning behavior in acoustic resonators

A high-brightness squeezed light source includes a plurality of light squeezing elements and a photonic summing device. The light squeezing elements each output respective squeezed light responsive to receipt of unsqueezed light. The photonic summing device receives the squeezed light output by each of the light squeezing elements and coherently adds the squeezed light to generate a high-brightness squeezed light output. The high-brightness squeezed light output has a greater brightness than the outputs of the light squeezing elements, and a same degree of squeezing as one or more of the outputs of the light squeezing elements.

Photonic integrated circuits for generating high-brightness squeezed light

A quantum communication system includes a first quantum transceiver, a second quantum transceiver, and a quantum communication mediator (QCM) system. The transceivers have different resonant frequencies or physical systems. The QCM system receives an initial quantum signal from the first quantum transceiver. The QCM system transfers a quantum state of the initial quantum signal to a first mechanical signal and then from the first mechanical signal to a first pair of optical signals by way of a first three-wave mixing process. The QCM transfers the quantum state to a second pair of optical signals from the first pair by way of a four-wave mixing process. The QCM transfers the quantum state from the second pair of optical signals to a second mechanical signal by way of a second three-wave mixing process. The QCM transfers the quantum state from the second mechanical signal to a final quantum signal by mechanical transduction.

Remote quantum state transfer for qubits with different frequencies

A focusing interdigital transducer (IDT) and corresponding single- and dual-port piezoelectric devices are disclosed. The focusing interdigital transducer, which generates Lam&#xe9; acoustic waves, permits operation at significantly higher frequencies than those possible with traditional IDTs. The focusing IDT employs multiple arced fingers formed both above and below the piezoelectric layer to improve coupling efficiency by coupling through both the eand epiezoelectric coefficients to the piezoelectric layer. By optimizing both anchor design and location, acoustic wave losses are minimized, thereby improving the device's quality factor Q. Through proper bus design and selection of the number of IDT fingers, a device's impedance can be tuned for a given application. The focusing IDTs may be used in single-port filter devices and dual-port transformer devices. The single- and dual-port devices may operate at a single frequency, at two frequencies, or over a band of frequencies.

Focusing transformers/filters in isotropic/anisotropic piezoelectrics

An amplifying radiofrequency device includes a piezoelectric film and a semiconductor amplifier layer. The piezoelectric film is conformed as an acoustic waveguide. The piezoelectric film has a principal acoustic propagation direction parallel to the principal conduction direction of the amplifier layer. Interdigitated transducers are positioned on the piezoelectric film to respectively launch an acoustic wave in response to an input RF signal, and transduce the acoustic wave back to an output RF signal. There is a distance of less than the acoustic wavelength between the semiconductor amplifier layer and the piezoelectric film. The piezoelectric film has a thickness of less than the acoustic wavelength. According to a method for making such a device, a stack of III-V layers is epitaxially grown on a III-V substrate, wherein the stack comprises a first etch stop layer, a second etch stop layer, an amplifier layer, and a contact layer. The stack is bonded to a lithium niobate film. The III-V substrate is removed by etching down to the first etch stop layer. Deposition windows are opened by etching from the first etch stop layer down to the contact layer. Metal contact electrodes are deposited in the deposition windows.

Hybrid semiconductor-piezoacoustic radiofrequency device

An electro-acoustic device includes a plurality of suspended, piezoelectric, acoustically waveguiding membranes supported in a common plane. An input transducer coupled to one of the waveguiding membranes converts input electrical signals to traveling-wave acoustic signals. An output transducer coupled to one of the waveguiding membranes converts acoustic signals to electrical signals. At least two of the waveguiding membrane have parallel straight sections that are longer than a guided acoustic wavelength and that are mutually separated by an air gap having a width less than the guided acoustic wavelength.

Evanescently coupled piezoelectric acoustic devices

A micromechanical resonator is disclosed. The resonator includes a resonant micromechanical element. A film of annealable material deposited on a facial surface of the element. In one instance, the resonance of the element can be adjusting by using a feedback loop to control annealing of the deposited film.

Growing community of inventors

Albuquerque, NM, United States of America

Matt Eichenfield