Integrated optical isolators have been a longstanding challenge for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). An ideal integrated optical isolator for a PIC should be made by a monolithic process, have a small footprint, exhibit broadband and polarization-diverse operation, and be compatible with multiple materials platforms. Despite significant progress, the optical isolators reported so far do not meet all of these requirements. In this paper we present monolithically integrated broadband magneto-optical isolators on silicon and silicon nitride (SiN) platforms operating for both TE and TM modes with record-high performances, fulfilling all the essential characteristics for PIC applications. In particular, we demonstrate fully TE broadband isolators by depositing high-quality magneto-optical garnet thin films on the sidewalls of Si and SiN waveguides, a critical result for applications in TE-polarized on-chip lasers and amplifiers. This work demonstrates monolithic integration of high-performance optical isolators on-chip for polarization-diverse silicon photonic systems, enabling new pathways to impart nonreciprocal photonic functionality to a variety of integrated photonic devices.

Optical isolators and circulators are important components for photonic integrated circuits. Despite significant progress on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platforms, integrated optical isolators and circulators have rarely been reported on silicon nitride (SiN) platforms. In this paper, we report monolithic integration of magneto-optical (MO) isolators on SiN platforms with record-high performances based on standard silicon photonics foundry process and MO thin film deposition. We successfully grow high-quality MO garnet thin films on SiN with large Faraday rotation up to - − 5900 d e g / c m . We show superior MO figure of merit (FoM) of MO/SiN waveguides compared to that of MO/SOI in an optimized device design. We demonstrate transverse magnetic (TM)/transverse electric (TE) mode broadband and narrowband optical isolators and circulators on SiN with high isolation ratio, low cross talk, and low insertion loss. In particular, we observe 1 dB insertion loss and 28 dB isolation ratio in a SiN racetrack resonator-based isolator at 1570.3 nm wavelength. The low thermo-optic coefficient of SiN also ensures excellent temperature stability of the device. Our work paves the way for integration of high-performance nonreciprocal photonic devices on SiN platforms.

The current understanding of topological insulators and their classical wave analogs, such as photonic topological insulators, is mainly based on topological band theory. However, standard band theory does not apply to amorphous phases of matter, which are formed by non-crystalline lattices with no long-range positional order but only short-range order, exhibiting unique phenomena such as the glass-to-liquid transition. Here, we experimentally investigate amorphous variants of a Chern number-based photonic topological insulator. By tuning the disorder strength in the lattice, we demonstrate that photonic topological edge states can persist into the amorphous regime prior to the glass-to-liquid transition. After the transition to a liquid-like lattice configuration, the signatures of topological edge states disappear. This interplay between topology and short-range order in amorphous lattices paves the way for new classes of non-crystalline topological photonic bandgap materials.

Owing to their prominent stability and CMOS compatibility, HfO₂-based ferroelectric films have attracted great attention as promising candidates for ferroelectric random-access memory applications. A major reliability issue for HfO₂ based ferroelectric devices is fatigue. So far, there have been a few studies on the fatigue mechanism of this material. Here, we report a systematic study of the fatigue mechanism of yttrium-doped hafnium oxide (HYO) ferroelectric thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition. The influence of pulse width, pulse amplitude and temperature on the fatigue behavior of HYO during field cycling is studied. The temperature dependent conduction mechanism is characterized after different fatigue cycles. Domain wall pinning caused by carrier injection at shallow defect centers is found to be the major fatigue mechanism of this material. The fatigued device can fully recover to the fatigue-free state after being heated at 90 °C for 30 min, confirming the shallow trap characteristic of the domain wall pinning defects.