Scalable Liquid-Crystal Integrated Silicon Nitride Photonic Circuits for Reconfigurable Quantum Interference

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates liquid crystal integrated silicon nitride photonic circuits capable of reconfigurable quantum interference with high visibility, low power, and scalable wafer fabrication, advancing quantum photonics technology.

Contribution

First experimental validation of LC-based phase modulators on SiN platform showing high-visibility quantum interference and scalable fabrication.

Findings

Achieved CMOS-compatible performance with V_pi * L < 1 V-mm.

Demonstrated ~98.5% quantum interference visibility.

Validated wafer-scale fabrication using stepper lithography.

Abstract

Integrated quantum photonics requires compact, efficient, and low-power phase modulators. While silicon nitride (SiN) is a promising platform, existing modulators suffer from high power consumption, thermal crosstalk, or high driving voltages. Liquid crystal (LC) offers a compelling alternative because of the large index changes and industrial maturity. However, their suitability for supporting various applications in the photonic quantum system has not been experimentally confirmed.Here, we report the first experimental demonstration that LC-based phase modulators integrated on a SiN platform show highly visible quantum interference. We fabricated a liquid-crystal integrated Mach-Zehnder interferometer (LC-MZI) that achieved CMOS-compatible performance with V_pi * L < 1 V-mm. In two-photon interference experiments, the devices exhibited high-visibility quantum interference (~98.5%) with voltage-tunable phase control. Furthermore, we validated the scalability of our approach by demonstrating wafer-scale fabrication using stepper lithography. This work establishes LC-integrated SiN photonics as a scalable, reconfigurable, and energy-efficient platform for quantum photonic circuits.