Silicon photonics for light generation and information processing

Alexander Tait
NIST: National Institute of Standards and Technology

Abstract

At low-temperature, silicon can be made to emit light, and superconducting wires can detect single photons. When integrated with silicon photonic waveguides, this combination of sources and detectors forms the basis of an emerging platform for cryogenic silicon photonics. A new photonic integrated circuit platform could potentially impact current approaches to quantum measurement, communication, and computing. The extent of these potentials depends on further development of on-chip silicon light sources. There are two frontiers: high-power sources for nonlinear optics, and very low-power (single-photon) sources for quantum optics.

Silicon photonics has opened possibilities for new concepts in optical information science - this is also true at room temperature. Neuromorphic silicon photonics has pushed the bounds of machine learning performance. As with any revolutionary computing technology, neuromorphic photonics could have unforeseen and fascinating other applications, perhaps most dramatically in autonomous analysis and control of ultrafast phenomena.

This talk will summarize recent progress in neuromorphic silicon photonics and touch on some current research frontiers. I will give an introduction to cryogenic silicon optoelectronics and describe how these physics can connect to information processing. Special attention will be given to current progress and future directions in cryogenic all-silicon light sources.