Plenary Speaker
Marko Lončar
Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering and Harvard College Professor Chair
Integrated Lithium Niobate Photonics
Lithium niobate (LN) is an “old” material with many applications in optical and microwave technologies, owing to its unique properties that include large second order nonlinear susceptibility, large piezoelectric response, and wide optical transparency window. Conventional discrete LN components, the workhorse of the optoelectronic industry for many decades, are reaching their limits, however. I will discuss our efforts aimed at the development of integrated LN photonic platform, featuring strong light confinement and dense integration, that has the potential to revolutionize optical communication networks and microwave photonic systems, as well as enable realization of quantum photonic circuits. Examples include high bandwidth, low voltage, and low loss electro-optic (EO) modulators [1], EO frequency combs [2], programmable “photonic molecules” [3] and frequency domain shifters/ beam splitters [4]. Devices that benefit from LN’s strong second and third order nonlinearity, including second harmonic generators [5] and Kerr frequency combs [6] will also be discussed.
- C. Wang, M. Zhang, X. Chen, M. Bertrand, A. Shams-Ansari, S. Chandrasekhar, P. Winzer, and M. Lončar. “Integrated lithium niobate electro-optic modulators operating at CMOS-compatible voltages.” Nature 562, 101 (2018).
- M. Zhang, B. Buscaino, C. Wang, A. Shams-Ansari, C. Reimer, R. Zhu, J. Kahn, and M. Loncar. “Broadband electro-optic frequency comb generation in an integrated microring resonator.” Nature 568, 373(2019).
- M. Zhang, C. Wang, Y. Hu, A. Shams-Ansari, T. Ren, S. Fan, and M. Lončar. “Electronically Programmable Photonic Molecule.” Nature Photonics 13, 36 (2019).
- Y. Hu, M. Yu, D. Zhu, N. Sinclair, A. Shams-Ansari, L. Shao, J. Holzgrafe, E. Puma, M. Zhang, and M. Loncar. “On-chip electro-optic frequency shifters and beam splitters.” Nature 599, 587 (2021).
- C. Wang, C. Langrock, A. Marandi, M. Jankowski, M. Zhang, B. Desiatov, M. M. Fejer, and M. Lončar. “Ultrahigh-efficiency wavelength conversion in nanophotonic periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides.” Optica 5, 1438 (2018).
- C. Wang, M. Zhang, M. Yu, R. Zhu, H. Hu, and M. Loncar, “Monolithic lithium niobate photonic circuits for Kerr frequency comb generation and modulation.” Nature Communications 10, 978 (2019).
About Marko
Marko Lončar is the Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), as well as Harvard College Professor. Lončar received his Diploma from University of Belgrade (R. Serbia) in 1997, and his PhD from Caltech in 2003 (with Axel Scherer), both in Electrical Engineering. After completing his postdoctoral studies at Harvard (with Federico Capasso), he joined the SEAS faculty in 2006. Lončar is an expert in nanophotonics and nanofabrication, and his current research interests include quantum and nonlinear nanophotonics, quantum optomechanics, high-power optics, and nanofabrication. He received a NSF CAREER Award in 2009 and a Sloan Fellowship in 2010. In recognition of his teaching activities, Lončar was awarded the Levenson Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2012) and named Harvard College Professor in 2017. Lončar is a fellow of the Optical Society of America, and a Senior Member of IEEE and SPIE. He is also co-founder and board member of HyperLight Corporation, a VC-backed startup commercializing lithium niobate photonic technology.
