Integrated Reconfigurable Circulator

Brief Description

Photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprised of an integrated non-reciprocal device that can be reversed, is monolithic, and can be integrated with lasers and modulators

Background

Non-reciprocal devices demonstrated to date have been relatively large, have had fixed functionality, and required complex fabrication to integrate permanent magnetic material. While there are many circulators available, none can be reversed. A reconfigurable circulator has never been proposed or demonstrated before.

Description

Researchers at UC Santa Barbara have created a photonic integrated circuit (PIC) comprised of an integrated non-reciprocal device that can be reversed, is monolithic, and can be integrated with lasers and modulators. This method takes an input from one port (#1) and sends it to the next port (#2) and so forth, until the last port (N) sends the signal to the first port (#1). The present invention enables integration of low-optical-loss non-reciprocal devices in a PIC in a simple, low-cost manner.

Advantages

• Reversible
• Reconfigurable
• Reduced cost

Applications

• Can be integrated with lasers & modulators

Patent Status