All-photonic millimeter-wave and terahertz signal core at room and cryogenic temperatures
Abstract
Millimeter-wave and terahertz technologies offer new opportunities for high-capacity communications, sensing, and quantum systems, but electronic signal chains above 100 GHz are limited by weak sources, noisy receivers, and lossy interconnects. Photonic approaches mitigate these constraints by enabling chip-scale high-frequency components, yet existing implementations generally retain lossy off-chip electrical or free-space links, hindering dense and compact integration for cryogenic or space-constrained settings. Here, we show a monolithic lithium tantalate photonic chip, termed a signal core, which generates, modulates, routes, and detects continuous-wave signals at discrete frequencies between 100 GHz and 2.5 THz. The architecture integrates high-frequency functional modules on chip and uses exclusively fiber-based optical interfaces. Bidirectional coherent electro-optic conversion enables signal generation, detection, and nanosecond-scale amplitude and phase modulation, while micro-coplanar striplines interconnect the modules into an end-to-end signal chain on a single chip. Our modules achieve single-photon electro-optic coupling rates of g_0/2π=10 kHz and peak drive-power-normalized photon-flux conversion efficiencies of 1.0%/mW for generation and 0.5%/mW for detection. It also operates at 4 K in a dilution refrigerator through the same fiber-only optical links. Together, these capabilities establish an all-photonic platform for millimeter-wave-to-terahertz systems and offer a broadly applicable architecture for applications constrained by electrical-interconnect loss, heat load, and footprint.
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BibTeX
@misc{liu2026allphotonic,
title = {{All-photonic millimeter-wave and terahertz signal core at room and cryogenic temperatures}},
author = {Jiawen Liu and Chengli Wang and Aleksei Gaier and Tianyi Zhang and Gabriel Jülg and Yazan Lampert and André Garcia Primo and Alessandro Tomasino and Hua Li and Xin Ou and Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.30857},
eprint = {2610.30857},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30857},
note = {CC BY-NC-ND 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - All-photonic millimeter-wave and terahertz signal core at room and cryogenic temperatures
AU - Jiawen Liu
AU - Chengli Wang
AU - Aleksei Gaier
AU - Tianyi Zhang
AU - Gabriel Jülg
AU - Yazan Lampert
AU - André Garcia Primo
AU - Alessandro Tomasino
AU - Hua Li
AU - Xin Ou
AU - Ileana-Cristina Benea-Chelmus
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/22
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.30857
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.30857
AB - Millimeter-wave and terahertz technologies offer new opportunities for high-capacity communications, sensing, and quantum systems, but electronic signal chains above 100 GHz are limited by weak sources, noisy receivers, and lossy interconnects. Photonic approaches mitigate these constraints by enabling chip-scale high-frequency components, yet existing implementations generally retain lossy off-chip electrical or free-space links, hindering dense and compact integration for cryogenic or space-constrained settings. Here, we show a monolithic lithium tantalate photonic chip, termed a signal core, which generates, modulates, routes, and detects continuous-wave signals at discrete frequencies between 100 GHz and 2.5 THz. The architecture integrates high-frequency functional modules on chip and uses exclusively fiber-based optical interfaces. Bidirectional coherent electro-optic conversion enables signal generation, detection, and nanosecond-scale amplitude and phase modulation, while micro-coplanar striplines interconnect the modules into an end-to-end signal chain on a single chip. Our modules achieve single-photon electro-optic coupling rates of g_0/2π=10 kHz and peak drive-power-normalized photon-flux conversion efficiencies of 1.0%/mW for generation and 0.5%/mW for detection. It also operates at 4 K in a dilution refrigerator through the same fiber-only optical links. Together, these capabilities establish an all-photonic platform for millimeter-wave-to-terahertz systems and offer a broadly applicable architecture for applications constrained by electrical-interconnect loss, heat load, and footprint.
ER -