Multiport photonic routing with a single cavity-based electro-optic phase shifter per port
Abstract
Programmable photonic meshes can perform general linear transformations, but universal transformations on N modes require O(N2) programmable phase shifters, which cannot simultaneously achieve low drive voltage, gigahertz speed, zero static power, lossless modulation, and a compact footprint. Signal routing does not require universal transformations, which allows considerable circuit simplifications. We present a compact reflective circuit architecture that connects all input-output pairs across N modes in N steps using only O(N) programmable phase shifters. The circuit comprises a single passive N× N interferometer and a single column of programmable reflective phase shifters. We demonstrate the architecture by implementing a 3× 3 router in x-cut thin-film lithium niobate with a passive multimode interferometer and phase shifters based on single-sided photonic-crystal nanobeam cavities. Our programmable devices exhibit a $1.92$ GHz/V resonance tuning efficiency via the Pockels effect, a footprint of 100 μm2, sub-5-V drive voltage, and a 6.2 GHz electro-optic bandwidth. Through voltage-space characterization and physical modeling, we identify routing states with extinction ratios exceeding 11 dB at each output and demonstrate sequential routing at an equipment-limited speed of 10 MHz. Our results establish cavity-enhanced Pockels switching as a routing layer for classical and quantum computing interconnects across visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
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BibTeX
@misc{buzzi2026multiport,
title = {{Multiport photonic routing with a single cavity-based electro-optic phase shifter per port}},
author = {Alessandro Buzzi and Bjarke A. Frederiksen and Dashiell L. P. Vitullo and Mikkel Heuck and Dirk R. Englund},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.31757},
eprint = {2610.31757},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31757},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Multiport photonic routing with a single cavity-based electro-optic phase shifter per port
AU - Alessandro Buzzi
AU - Bjarke A. Frederiksen
AU - Dashiell L. P. Vitullo
AU - Mikkel Heuck
AU - Dirk R. Englund
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.31757
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.31757
AB - Programmable photonic meshes can perform general linear transformations, but universal transformations on N modes require O(N^2) programmable phase shifters, which cannot simultaneously achieve low drive voltage, gigahertz speed, zero static power, lossless modulation, and a compact footprint. Signal routing does not require universal transformations, which allows considerable circuit simplifications. We present a compact reflective circuit architecture that connects all input-output pairs across N modes in N steps using only O(N) programmable phase shifters. The circuit comprises a single passive N× N interferometer and a single column of programmable reflective phase shifters. We demonstrate the architecture by implementing a 3× 3 router in x-cut thin-film lithium niobate with a passive multimode interferometer and phase shifters based on single-sided photonic-crystal nanobeam cavities. Our programmable devices exhibit a $1.92$ GHz/V resonance tuning efficiency via the Pockels effect, a footprint of 100 μm^2, sub-5-V drive voltage, and a 6.2 GHz electro-optic bandwidth. Through voltage-space characterization and physical modeling, we identify routing states with extinction ratios exceeding 11 dB at each output and demonstrate sequential routing at an equipment-limited speed of 10 MHz. Our results establish cavity-enhanced Pockels switching as a routing layer for classical and quantum computing interconnects across visible and near-infrared wavelengths.
ER -