Terabit-scale wavelength-multiplexed transmitter enabled by thin-film lithium tantalate
Abstract
Artificial-intelligence systems face a growing data-movement bottleneck and require higher interconnect bandwidth without a proportional increase in electrical power consumption or the number of laser sources and fibre connections. Moving optical interfaces closer to computing chips reduces electrical transmission loss, while demanding optical engines that combine high channel capacity, broadband modulation and simple packaging. Although wavelength multiplexing relieves pressure on the fibre budget, integrating shared multi-wavelength sources with dense wavelength routing and broadband modulation in a compact format remains challenging. Here we demonstrate a monolithic transmitter that brings these functions together on a single material platform, enabled by the low birefringence and native Pockels response of thin-film lithium tantalate. The device separates, independently modulates and recombines eight wavelength channels between one optical input and output. This architecture retains a two-fibre interface as the channel count grows, directly addressing the packaging burden of parallel optical links. Measurements across the eight channels establish an aggregate line rate of 1.6 Tbit s−1. Operation with a shared optical frequency comb achieves an estimated net data rate of 0.58 Tbit s−1 across four channels, demonstrating compatibility with a common multi-wavelength source. Scaling this architecture into multiple wavelength-multiplexed engines offers a path towards 10 Tbit s−1 optical interfaces with high bandwidth per unit package edge, positioning thin-film lithium tantalate for the next generation of co-packaged optical interconnects.
Related
- Highly integrated quantum key distribution transmitter enabled by silicon photonics
- Wavelength-Multiplexed Nonlinear Computing with a Single-Layer Diffractive Optical Processor
- Wavelength-Multiplexed 2D Beam Steering via a Passive Diffractive Network
- Bias-resolved comb-formation regimes in a simple two-section quantum-dot mode-locked laser for isolator-free, terabit-scale O-band interconnects
- Decoupled equalization of polarization and transmitter IQ skew in digital subcarrier multiplexing systems
BibTeX
@misc{hulyal2026terabitscale,
title = {{Terabit-scale wavelength-multiplexed transmitter enabled by thin-film lithium tantalate}},
author = {Shivaprasad U. Hulyal and Dengyang Fang and Jiachen Cai and Xinru Ji and Alexander Kotz and Jiale Sun and Christian Koos and Tobias J. Kippenberg},
howpublished = {arXiv},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.48550/arxiv.2610.26674},
eprint = {2610.26674},
archivePrefix = {arXiv},
url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.26674},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - UNPB
TI - Terabit-scale wavelength-multiplexed transmitter enabled by thin-film lithium tantalate
AU - Shivaprasad U. Hulyal
AU - Dengyang Fang
AU - Jiachen Cai
AU - Xinru Ji
AU - Alexander Kotz
AU - Jiale Sun
AU - Christian Koos
AU - Tobias J. Kippenberg
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
PB - arXiv
DO - 10.48550/arxiv.2610.26674
UR - https://arxiv.org/abs/2610.26674
AB - Artificial-intelligence systems face a growing data-movement bottleneck and require higher interconnect bandwidth without a proportional increase in electrical power consumption or the number of laser sources and fibre connections. Moving optical interfaces closer to computing chips reduces electrical transmission loss, while demanding optical engines that combine high channel capacity, broadband modulation and simple packaging. Although wavelength multiplexing relieves pressure on the fibre budget, integrating shared multi-wavelength sources with dense wavelength routing and broadband modulation in a compact format remains challenging. Here we demonstrate a monolithic transmitter that brings these functions together on a single material platform, enabled by the low birefringence and native Pockels response of thin-film lithium tantalate. The device separates, independently modulates and recombines eight wavelength channels between one optical input and output. This architecture retains a two-fibre interface as the channel count grows, directly addressing the packaging burden of parallel optical links. Measurements across the eight channels establish an aggregate line rate of 1.6 Tbit s^−1. Operation with a shared optical frequency comb achieves an estimated net data rate of 0.58 Tbit s^−1 across four channels, demonstrating compatibility with a common multi-wavelength source. Scaling this architecture into multiple wavelength-multiplexed engines offers a path towards 10 Tbit s^−1 optical interfaces with high bandwidth per unit package edge, positioning thin-film lithium tantalate for the next generation of co-packaged optical interconnects.
ER -