In this talk we plan to discuss a novel class of nanoscale devices that address unmet performance demands for applications in data communications. The performance of emerging generations of high-speed, integrated electronic circuits is increasingly dictated by interconnect density and latency as well as by power consumption. To alleviate these limitations, data communications using photons has been deployed, where photonic circuits and devices are integrated on platforms compatible with conventional electronic technologies. Within the dominant platform; namely Si, dielectric waveguides confine light via total internal reflection. This imposes bounds on minimizing device dimensions and density of integration. Those bounds arise due to the diffraction limit and the cross-coupling between neighboring waveguides. Nanoscale Plasmonic waveguides provide the unique ability to confine light within a few 10s of nanometers and allow for near perfect transmission through sharp bends as well as efficient light distribution between orthogonally intersecting junctions. With these structures as a building block, new levels of optoelectronic integration and performance metrics for athermal transceivers with achievable bandwidths of 100s Gbps and detection sensitivity better than -55 dBs, will be overviewed in this talk. In addition, opportunities for the role that 2D materials may pay in propelling these record performance metrics even further will be projected. Speaker(s): Amr Helmy, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/319139

In recent years higher integration of optics with electronics has been proposed using the advantages of silicon photonics. In particular co-packaging of optical engines with Ethernet switch ICs. Within the last year there has been a lot of progress on these co-packaged optical switch designs. This presentation shows the architecture and performance data of a "half optics" 25Tb/s switch system with a linear interface between the optical engine and the switch SERDES as one implementation example. Design considerations and potential implementation issues are addressed. An outlook for future systems is given. Speaker(s): Karl Muth, santa clara, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/312554

A quantum light source is a device that can generate one single photon - or an entangled pair of photons - on demand. Whilst a single photon emitter would be pretty useless as a car headlight or bedside lamp, these devices are in increasing demand for new developments in optical communication which might exploit fundamental principles of quantum physics to achieve data security. Linear optical quantum computation, precision optical measurement and even random number generation also present potential applications opportunities for such light sources. However, many of the most mature quantum light sources operate at temperatures only accessible using liquid helium, at best inconvenient and at worst prohibitive for applications. Exploiting nitride semiconductors allows device concepts developed in the more conventional arsenide semiconductor family to be applied, but whilst arsenide devices are limited to cryogenic temperatures, nitride devices can operate at temperatures accessible using on-chip, Peltier cooling, and in some cases even at room temperature. Unfortunately, working with these less mature semiconductors has its pitfalls: high densities of defects and the impact of internal electric fields can limit device performance. For example, the wavelength of emission from nitride single photon emitters wanders with time, which is not compatible with applications which demand resonance of the emitter with a cavity or (more stringently) the emission of indistinguishable photons. Nitrides crystals grown in unusual orientations can overcome these challenges whilst maintaining good temperature stability, providing new opportunities for real-world quantum technologies. Speaker(s): Rachel Oliver, Santa Clara, California, United States, Virtual: https://events.vtools.ieee.org/m/312553