Nonlinear Photonics with Lithium Niobate

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 present 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], [3] and frequency domain shifters/ beam splitters [4]. Quantum photonic circuits suitable for microwave-to-optical transduction [5] integration with diamond color centers [6] will also be discussed.