An Ultrafast Testbed for Comprehensive Characterization of Photonics, Electronic, and Optoelectronic Properties of Integrated Nanophotonic Structures

High-speed testing technology will enable advances such as new digital signal processing/computing platforms in the optical domain through the development of innovative high-speed and low-power nonlinear optical processing cores that can be co-integrated with digital signal processors to enable new functionalities.

Army Research Office, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina

An ultrafast testbed for the characterization of high-speed integrated photonic devices such as high-speed integrated photonic modulators and detectors was developed. A major requirement in performing successful research in this field is the availability of ultra-fast optoelectronic characterization tools that facilitate the study of ultrafast low-power devices and systems (e.g., modulators, switches, detectors).

The accompanying figure shows a schematic of the characterization test-bed, which is used to measure the optical, electronic, and optoelectronic properties of an integrated photonic structure. The sample under test (SUT) is placed on a highly functional 5D stage with full positioning control over translation in three directions, rotation, and tilt. It is also monitored by a spatially designed microscope from the top that is connected to a camera to monitor different devices fabricated in the SUT (typically, 10s to 100s of devices are fabricated in a single substrate).