Low-loss optical waveguides made with a high-loss material

Are Brain-Computer Interfaces Feasible With Integrated Photonic Chips?

The present paper examines the viability of a radically novel idea for brain-computer interface (BCI), which could lead to novel technological, experimental, and clinical applications. BCIs are computer-based systems that enable either one-way or two-way communication between a living brain and an external machine. BCIs read-out brain signals and transduce them into task commands, which are performed by a machine. In closed loop, the machine can stimulate the brain with appropriate signals. In recent years, it has been shown that there is some ultraweak light emission from neurons within or close to the visible and near-infrared parts of the optical spectrum. Such ultraweak photon emission (UPE) reflects the cellular (and body) oxidative status, and compelling pieces of evidence are beginning to emerge that UPE may well play an informational role in neuronal functions. In fact, several experiments point to a direct correlation between UPE intensity and neural activity, oxidative reactions, EEG activity, cerebral blood flow, cerebral energy metabolism, and release of glutamate. Therefore, we propose a novel skull implant BCI that uses UPE. We suggest that a photonic integrated chip installed on the interior surface of the skull may enable a new form of extraction of the relevant features from the UPE signals. In the current technology landscape, photonic technologies are advancing rapidly and poised to overtake many electrical technologies, due to their unique advantages, such as miniaturization, high speed, low thermal effects, and large integration capacity that allow for high yield, volume manufacturing, and lower cost. For our proposed BCI, we are making some very major conjectures, which need to be experimentally verified, and therefore we discuss the controversial parts, feasibility of technology and limitations, and potential impact of this envisaged technology if successfully implemented in the future.

Guided mode meta-optics: metasurface-dressed waveguides for arbitrary mode couplers and on-chip OAM emitters with a configurable topological charge

Metasurface has achieved fruitful results in tailoring optical fields in free space. However, a systematic investigation on applying meta-optics to completely control waveguide modes is still elusive. Here we present a comprehensive catalog to selectively and exclusively couple free space light into arbitrary high-order waveguide modes of interest, leveraging silicon metasurface-patterned silicon nitride waveguides. By simultaneously engineering the matched phase gradient of the nanoantennas and the vectorial spatial modal overlap between the antenna near-field and target waveguide mode profile, either single or multiple high-order modes are successfully launched with high purity reaching 98%. Moreover, on-chip twisted light generators are theoretically proposed with configurable OAM topological charge ℓ from -3 to +2. This work may serve as a comprehensive framework for guided mode meta-optics and motivates further applications such as versatile integrated couplers, multiplexers, and mode-division multiplexing-based communication systems.

High-efficiency unidirectional vertical emitter achieved by an aperture-coupling nanoslot antenna array

Coupling light from in-plane guided light into free space or optical fibers is crucial for many photonic integrated circuits and vice versa. However, traditional grating couplers or waveguide grating antennas suffer from low upward coupling efficiency due to the light radiating in both upward and downward directions simultaneously. In this paper, a compact aperture-coupling nanoslot antenna array is proposed for high-efficiency unidirectional radiation, where a two-dimensional high-contrast grating (HCG) is employed as a mirror to reflect the undesired downward radiation. Upon the HCG separated by a low-index spacing layer, a thin silver layer is deposited. Finally, a series of H-shaped slots are patterned on the silver thin film to arrange the aperture fields and radiate the in-plane guided light into free space. The proposed nanoslot antenna array features a front-to-back ratio (F/B) over 10 dB within the wavelength range of 1500 ∼ 1600 nm. At the same time, a high radiation efficiency of over 75% and a maximum radiation efficiency of 87.6% are achieved within the 100 nm bandwidth. The high-efficiency unidirectional antenna array is promising for the integrated photonic applications including wireless optical communications, light detection and ranging, and fiber input/output couplers.