Bidirectional microwave-optical transduction based on integration of high-overtone bulk acoustic resonators and photonic circuits

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact, scalable microwave-optical transducer that uses integrated piezoelectric actuators and high-overtone bulk acoustic resonators to achieve efficient bidirectional frequency conversion at room temperature.

Contribution

It presents a novel monolithic integration of piezoelectric actuators with silicon nitride photonic circuits for enhanced microwave-optical transduction without relying on superconducting elements.

Findings

Achieves -48 dB photon number conversion efficiency at 25 MHz bandwidth.

Operates effectively at room temperature with 21 dBm input power.

Demonstrates bidirectional microwave-optical signal conversion.

Abstract

Coherent interconversion between microwave and optical frequencies can serve as both classical and quantum interfaces for computing, communication, and sensing. Here, we present a compact microwave-optical transducer based on monolithic integration of piezoelectric actuators atop silicon nitride photonic circuits. Such an actuator directly couples microwave signals to a high-overtone bulk acoustic resonator defined by the suspended silica cladding of the optical waveguide core, which leads to enhanced electromechanical and optomechanical couplings. At room temperature, this triply resonant piezo-optomechanical transducer achieves an off-chip photon number conversion efficiency of -48 dB over a bandwidth of 25 MHz at an input pump power of 21 dBm. The approach is scalable in manufacturing and, unlike existing electro-optic transducers, does not rely on superconducting resonators. As the transduction process is bidirectional, we further demonstrate synthesis of microwave pulses from a purely optical input. Combined with the capability of leveraging multiple acoustic modes for transduction, the present platform offers prospects for building frequency-multiplexed qubit interconnects and for microwave photonics at large.