Thermal phase shifters for femtosecond laser written photonic integrated circuits

TL;DR

This paper discusses the design and fabrication of thermal phase shifters in femtosecond laser written photonic integrated circuits, demonstrating improved power efficiency, miniaturization, and stability for reconfigurable optical devices.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of thermal shifter design issues and presents optimized solutions, enabling scalable and stable reconfigurable FLW-PICs.

Findings

Reduced power dissipation in thermal phase shifters

Enhanced miniaturization of photonic components

Improved stability and calibration of reconfigurable circuits

Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are today acknowledged as an effective solution to fulfill the demanding requirements of many practical applications in both classical and quantum optics. Phase shifters integrated in the photonic circuit offer the possibility to dynamically reconfigure its properties in order to fine tune its operation or to produce adaptive circuits, thus greatly extending the quality and the applicability of these devices. In this paper, we provide a thorough discussion of the main problems that one can encounter when using thermal shifters to reconfigure photonic circuits. We then show how all these issues can be solved by a careful design of the thermal shifters and by choosing the most appropriate way to drive them. Such performance improvement is demonstrated by manufacturing thermal phase shifters in femtosecond laser written PICs (FLW-PICs), and by characterizing their operation in detail. The unprecedented results in terms of power dissipation, miniaturization and stability, enable the scalable implementation of reconfigurable FLW-PICs that can be easily calibrated and exploited in the applications.