Ultra-low loss piezo-optomechanical low-confinement silicon nitride platform for visible wavelength quantum photonic circuits
Abstract
Realizing photonic quantum computing at scale requires integrated circuits that combine ultra-low loss with fast, low-power, low-hysteresis, and low-crosstalk reconfiguration. These requirements are particularly challenging at visible wavelengths, where many quantum resource-state generators, including single-photon sources and quantum memories, naturally operate. Low-confinement silicon nitride waveguides offer the requisite loss performance, but conventional thermo-optic modulators dissipate significant static power, driving thermal crosstalk and precluding cryogenic operation. Visible-wavelength piezo-optomechanical circuits avoid these drawbacks, but existing demonstrations rely either on high-confinement waveguides with propagation losses of 35-100 dB/m, or on low-confinement platforms using foundry-incompatible lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Here we combine piezo-optomechanical actuation with a CMOS-foundry-fabricated, low-confinement silicon nitride platform, achieving 2.6 dB/m propagation loss at 780 nm, megahertz-scale modulation bandwidth, a half-wave voltage-length product of 2.8 V ⋅ m, and negligible hysteresis. We demonstrate reconfigurable Mach-Zehnder interferometers with 0.63 dB loss per spiral phase shifter, enabling deep, actively reconfigurable visible-wavelength quantum photonic circuits.
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BibTeX
@article{mishra2026ultralow,
title = {{Ultra-low loss piezo-optomechanical low-confinement silicon nitride platform for visible wavelength quantum photonic circuits}},
author = {Mayank Mishra and Gwangho Choi and Wenhua He and Gina M. Talcott and Katherine Kearney and Michael Gehl and Andrew Leenheer and Daniel Dominguez and Nils T. Otterstrom and Matt Eichenfield},
journal = {Nature Communications},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.1038/s41467-026-77969-0},
url = {https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77969-0},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - Ultra-low loss piezo-optomechanical low-confinement silicon nitride platform for visible wavelength quantum photonic circuits
AU - Mayank Mishra
AU - Gwangho Choi
AU - Wenhua He
AU - Gina M. Talcott
AU - Katherine Kearney
AU - Michael Gehl
AU - Andrew Leenheer
AU - Daniel Dominguez
AU - Nils T. Otterstrom
AU - Matt Eichenfield
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/27
JO - Nature Communications
DO - 10.1038/s41467-026-77969-0
UR - https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-77969-0
AB - Realizing photonic quantum computing at scale requires integrated circuits that combine ultra-low loss with fast, low-power, low-hysteresis, and low-crosstalk reconfiguration. These requirements are particularly challenging at visible wavelengths, where many quantum resource-state generators, including single-photon sources and quantum memories, naturally operate. Low-confinement silicon nitride waveguides offer the requisite loss performance, but conventional thermo-optic modulators dissipate significant static power, driving thermal crosstalk and precluding cryogenic operation. Visible-wavelength piezo-optomechanical circuits avoid these drawbacks, but existing demonstrations rely either on high-confinement waveguides with propagation losses of 35-100 dB/m, or on low-confinement platforms using foundry-incompatible lead zirconate titanate (PZT). Here we combine piezo-optomechanical actuation with a CMOS-foundry-fabricated, low-confinement silicon nitride platform, achieving 2.6 dB/m propagation loss at 780 nm, megahertz-scale modulation bandwidth, a half-wave voltage-length product of 2.8 V ⋅ m, and negligible hysteresis. We demonstrate reconfigurable Mach-Zehnder interferometers with 0.63 dB loss per spiral phase shifter, enabling deep, actively reconfigurable visible-wavelength quantum photonic circuits.
SN - 2041-1723
ER -