2024/02/22 by Sivan Trajtenberg‐Mills, Trajtenberg-Mills, Sivan, Mohamed ElKabbash +9
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Applied Physics (physics.app-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Instrumentation and Detectors (physics.ins-det) #Optics (physics.optics) #Photonic and Optical Devices #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2402.14608
openalex publication_date 2024/02/22 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
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.