High Contrast Nulling in Photonic Meshes Through Architectural Redundancy
Optics
2025-02-17 v2
Abstract
We demonstrate a silicon photonic architecture comprised of Double Mach-Zehnder Interferometers (DMZIs) designed for high-contrast photonic applications. This configuration significantly enhances the achievable extinction ratio of photonic integrated circuits (PICs), reaching levels exceeding 80 dB. By leveraging the tunable properties of DMZIs and implementing a systematic configuration algorithm, the proposed mesh effectively compensates for fabrication imperfections and mitigates non-idealities such as back reflections. Experimental validation on a silicon-on-insulator platform demonstrates the potential of this approach for applications requiring high contrast nulling such as astronomical sensing.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2502.07997,
title = {High Contrast Nulling in Photonic Meshes Through Architectural Redundancy},
author = {Carson Valdez and Zhanghao Sun and Anne R. Kroo and David A. B. Miller and Olav Solgaard},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2502.07997},
year = {2025}
}