Improvements in Optical System Performance

Quantum Leap: Noisy Lasers Transformed into Ultra-Stable Quantum Light Introduction: The Power–Precision Paradox in Lasers Lasers are indispensable in modern science and technology—from precision surgery and semiconductor manufacturing to advanced communication systems. However, boosting laser power typically comes at a cost: increased noise. These fluctuations in intensity degrade performance in applications where high stability and precision are critical. A new breakthrough by scientists at Cornell and MIT promises to change that. Key Breakthroughs and Findings Researchers have discovered a method to convert noisy, high-power laser beams into ultra-stable light that behaves according to quantum—rather than classical—rules. Their study, published in Nature Photonics, introduces a transformative approach using fiber optics and filtering techniques. • The Noise Problem: High-powered lasers naturally generate erratic fluctuations in their output, traditionally seen as a limiting factor for precise applications. • The Innovation: By passing noisy, amplified laser beams through specially designed optical fibers and filters, the researchers created a light beam with noise levels so low that they cannot be described using classical physics. • Quantum State of Light: According to lead researcher Nicholas Rivera of Cornell, the resulting beam exists in a “quantum state that has no classical analog,” effectively redefining what amplified laser light can achieve. • Beyond the Lab: Unlike prior quantum light, which typically required low-power, unamplified sources and lab-controlled environments, this technique enables quantum-grade light at high power levels, making it more practical for real-world use. Why This Matters: Broad Implications Across Technology This discovery could revolutionize a range of photonic technologies: • Quantum Computing & Communication: Stable quantum light sources are foundational for secure communication protocols and advanced computing systems. • Precision Metrology: Industries that rely on ultraprecise measurements—such as GPS, astronomy, and spectroscopy—could benefit from vastly improved accuracy. • Scalable Photonic Devices: The technique makes it easier to build high-power quantum photonic devices, accelerating the transition from lab research to commercial applications. By overcoming the fundamental trade-off between laser power and stability, this research paves the way for a new era of quantum-enhanced technologies—powerful, precise, and practical. Keith King https://lnkd.in/gHPvUttw

⚡️ 'Laser Hurricanes' for Data Transmission Our lives rely on sending information via mediums like optical fibers. With the growing demand for higher information capacity, new methods of data transfer are becoming essential. 🔬 Breakthrough in Light Manipulation Researchers at Aalto University's Department of Applied Physics have discovered a new way to create tiny hurricanes of light, known as vortices, which can carry vast amounts of information. By manipulating metallic nanoparticles that interact with electric fields, they developed a design method based on quasicrystal geometries. This pioneering work was conceptualized by Doctoral Researcher Kristian Arjas and experimentally realized by Doctoral Researcher Jani Taskinen, under the guidance of Professor Päivi Törmä. 🌪️ Understanding Light Vortices In this context, a vortex is like a hurricane within a beam of light, featuring a calm, dark center surrounded by a ring of bright light. The researchers unlocked a method to create geometric shapes that can theoretically support any kind of vortex, moving beyond previous limitations tied to structural symmetries. 💡 Innovative Approach The team manipulated 100,000 metallic nanoparticles, each roughly one-hundredth the width of a human hair, to craft their unique design. The key was placing particles in areas where the electric field is essentially inactive, allowing them to select fields with the most promising properties for applications. 🚀 Potential Applications This discovery opens new avenues in the field of topological photonics and could revolutionize data transmission. By sending these light vortices through optical fibers and unpacking them at the destination, we could potentially transmit 8 to 16 times more information than current methods allow. 🛠️ Future Prospects While practical applications and scalability may take years of engineering, this groundbreaking work lays the foundation for advanced technologies in telecommunications and beyond. 📄 Original Paper: https://lnkd.in/gk_HK9na #OpticalPhysics #DataTransmission #Metamaterials #Photonics #Nanotechnology #QuantumDynamics #AaltoUniversity

Using light as a neural network, as this viral video depicts, is actually closer than you think. In 5-10yrs, we could have matrix multiplications in constant time O(1) with 95% less energy. This is the next era of Moore's Law. Let's talk about Silicon Photonics... The core concept: Replace electrical signals with photons. While current processors push electrons through metal pathways, photonic systems use light beams, operating at fundamentally higher speeds (electronic signals in copper are 3x slower) with minimal heat generation. It's way faster. While traditional chips operate at 3-5 GHz, photonic devices can achieve >100 GHz switching speeds. Current interconnects max out at ~100 Gb/s. Photonic links have demonstrated 2+ Tb/s on a single channel. A single optical path can carry 64+ signals. It's way more energy efficient. Current chip-to-chip communication costs ~1-10pJ/bit. Photonic interconnects demonstrate 0.01-0.1pJ/bit. For data centers processing exabytes, this 200x improvement means the difference between megawatt and kilowatt power requirements. The AI acceleration potential is revolutionary. Matrix operations, fundamental to deep learning, become near-instantaneous: Traditional chips: O(n²) operations. Photonic chips: O(1) - parallel processing through optical interference. 1000×1000 matmuls in picoseconds. Where are we today? Real products are shipping: — Intel's 400G transceivers use silicon photonics. — Ayar Labs demonstrates 2Tb/s chip-to-chip links with AMD EPYC processors. Performance scales with wavelength count, not just frequency like traditional electronics. The manufacturing challenges are immense. — Current yield is ~30%. Silicon's terrible at emitting light and bonding III-V materials to it lowers yield — Temp control is a barrier. A 1°C change shifts frequencies by ~10GHz. — Cost/device is $1000s To reach mass production we need: 90%+ yield rates, sub-$100 per device costs, automated testing solutions, and reliable packaging techniques. Current packaging alone can cost more than the chip itself. We're 5+ years from hitting these targets. Companies to watch: ASML (manufacturing), Intel (data center), Lightmatter (AI), Ayar Labs (chip interconnects). The technology requires major investment, but the potential returns are enormous as we hit traditional electronics' physical limits.

Researchers from Columbia University and Cornell University recently reported a 3D-photonic transceiver that features 80 channels on a single chip and consumes only 120fJ/bit from its electro-optic front ends. The #transceiver achieves low energy consumption through low-capacitance 3D connections between photonics and co-designed #CMOS electronics. Each channel has a relatively low data rate of 10Gbps, allowing the transceiver's electronics to operate with high sensitivity and minimal energy consumption. The large array of channels compensates for the low per-channel data rates, delivering a high aggregate data rate of 800Gbps in a compact transceiver area of only 0.15mm2 (@5.3Tbps/mm2). In addition, having many low-data-rate channels relaxes signal processing and time multiplexing of data streams native to the processor. Furthermore, wavelength-division-multiplexing (#WDM) sources for numerous data streams are becoming available with the advent of chip-scale microcombs. The EIC is bonded to the PIC based on a 15μm spacing and a 10μm bump diameter (@25μm pitch) in an array of 2,304 bonds. This process mitigates two potential failure risks: 1) excessive tin causing flow and electrical short to adjacent bonds and 2) insufficient tin leading to brittle bonds. 👇Figure 1: a) An illustration of the 3D-integrated photonic-electronic system combining arrays of electronic cells with arrays of photonic devices. b) A microscope image of the 80-channel photonic device arrays with an inset of two transmitter and two receiver cells. c) Microscope images of the photonic and electronic chips. The active photonic circuits occupy an area outlined in white, while the outer photonic chip area is used to fan out the optical/electrical lanes for fiber coupling and wire bonding. The blue overlay shows a four-channel transmitter and receiver #waveguide path; the disk and ring overlays are not to scale. An inset shows a diagram of the fiber-to-chip edge coupler, consisting of a silicon nitride (Si3N4) inverse taper and escalator to silicon. d) A scanning electron microscope image of the bonded electronic and photonic chip cross-section. e) An image of the wire-bonded transceiver die bonded to a printed circuit board and optically coupled to a fiber array with a US dime for scale. f) A cross-sectional diagram of the electronic and photonic chips and their associated material stacks. Both chips consist of a crystalline silicon substrate, doped-silicon devices and metal interconnection layers. Daudlin, S. et al. Three-dimensional photonic integration for ultra-low-energy, high-bandwidth interchip data links. Nat. Photon. (2025).👉https://lnkd.in/gpeVGZna #SemiconductorIndustry #Semiconductor #Semiconductors #AI #HPC #Datacenter #Optics #Photonics #SiliconPhotonics #Optical #Networking #OCI #Ethernet #Infrastructure #Interconnect #CloudAI #AICluster AIM Photonics TSMC Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) #FiberCoupling #SiP

High-Speed, Efficient Photonic Memories "The researchers used a magneto-optical material, cerium-substituted yttrium iron garnet (YIG), the optical properties of which dynamically change in response to external magnetic fields. By employing tiny magnets to store data and control the propagation of light within the material, they pioneered a new class of magneto-optical memories. The innovative platform leverages light to perform calculations at significantly higher speeds and with much greater efficiency than can be achieved using traditional electronics. This new type of memory has switching speeds 100 times faster than those of state-of-the-art photonic integrated technology. They consume about one-tenth the power, and they can be reprogrammed multiple times to perform different tasks. While current state-of-the-art optical memories have a limited lifespan and can be written up to 1,000 times, the team demonstrated that magneto-optical memories can be rewritten more than 2.3 billion times, equating to a potentially unlimited lifespan." #optical #photonic

𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐈𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐅𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐂𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐮𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬 𝐟𝐨𝐫 2024 2024 has been a transformative year for optical communications as vendors, engineers, and researchers pushed the boundaries of innovation. Their efforts focused on increasing transmission capacity, simplifying complex networks, enhancing security, and reducing both costs and power consumption. Here are five significant areas of progress: 𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐩𝐭𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫𝐬: The industry made strides in spatial division multiplexing technologies, such as multicore and few-mode fibers, to boost capacity. Vendors like Sumitomo delivered multicore fibers specifically designed for undersea cable applications. 𝐒𝐩𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐄𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐁𝐚𝐮𝐝 𝐑𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐬: Efforts to enhance spectral efficiency by narrowing channel spacing and increasing channel counts in the C and L bands saw significant progress. The industry also achieved breakthroughs in higher baud rates, exemplified by CIENA's WaveLogic 6, capable of delivering single-carrier 1.6 Tb/s using 200 Gbaud technology. 𝐏𝐡𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐧𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐂𝐢𝐫𝐜𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐬 (𝐏𝐈𝐂𝐬): Development of PICs continued at a rapid pace to increase capacity while reducing power consumption and minimizing device footprints. 𝐀𝐈-𝐃𝐫𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐍𝐞𝐭𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥: Innovations in integrating artificial intelligence into optical networking advanced dynamic control and optimization of optical networks. 𝐐𝐮𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐦 𝐊𝐞𝐲 𝐂𝐫𝐲𝐩𝐭𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐲: The field saw considerable activity in quantum key cryptography to enhance network security and protect data integrity. For a detailed overview of these innovations, check out our video highlighting the key advancements in optical communications this year. James Burris David Robles Dino DiPerna Takahiko Aoyama A https://lnkd.in/gBNb-sSF

IBM gave the world a present yesterday in the form of a co-packed optical module that's poised to bring a seismic shift in efficiency to data centers and hyperscalers focused on high-compute workloads, like training AI models. Scientists at IBM Research announced a series of breakthroughs in chip assembly and packaging that promises to bring optical link connections right down to the device (chip) level. Their approach increases the number of optical fibers that can be connected at the edge of a chip using the world’s first polymer optical waveguide. Tests show that switching from conventional electrical interconnects to co-packaged optics can dramatically speed up model training, reduce energy costs for training AI models, and dramatically increase efficiency, which bodes well for operators who are facing rising pressure from customers looking to train models in the trillions of parameters. 🤯 Now, there are companies other than IBM working on similar solutions. However, this announcement reinforces the importance and URGENCY of solutions needed to usher the compute and networking sectors of the semiconductor into the "Age of AI" Whether you believe in Santa (or you're too old for that 😉), IBM has just delivered the gift that will keep on giving all year long, and this makes me extremely excited to see the photonics landscape grow and evolve in 2025. #semiconductorindustry #photonics #artificialintelligence

A breakthrough in integrated photonics has allowed researchers to harness light manipulation on silicon chips, paving the way for improved quantum computing and secure communications. In a study published in Advanced Photonics, researchers from the National Centre for Nanosciences and Nanotechnology (C2N), Télécom Paris, and STMicroelectronics (STM) have overcome previous limitations by developing silicon ring resonators with a footprint smaller than 0.05 mm² capable of generating over 70 distinct frequency channels spaced 21 GHz apart. https://lnkd.in/eudCkJUE