Waveguide lattice based architecture for multichannel optical transformations

TL;DR

This paper proposes a waveguide lattice architecture for implementing a wide range of multichannel optical transformations, including Fourier, Hadamard, and permutation matrices, with potential advantages in compactness for photonic information processing.

Contribution

It introduces a novel waveguide lattice-based approach to realize various multiport optical transformations with adjustable transfer matrices.

Findings

Successfully implemented random transfer matrices.

Demonstrated specific transformations like Fourier and Hadamard matrices.

Showed the architecture's potential for compact photonic systems.

Abstract

We consider coupled waveguide lattices as an architecture that implement a wide range of multiport transformations. In this architecture, a particular transfer matrix is obtained through setting the step-wise profiles of the propagation constants seen by the field evolving in the lattice. To investigate the transformation capabilities, the implementation of a set of transfer matrices taken at random and particular cases of discrete Fourier transform, Hadamard and permutation matrices have been described. Because the waveguide lattices schemes are more compact than their traditional lumped-parameter counterparts, our architecture may be beneficial for using in photonic information processing systems of the future.