Abstract:
The last two decades have seen tremendous progress in the field of integrated photonics, and chip-scale photonic systems can now be found everywhere: from optical communications and sensing, to machine vision and precision measurements. However, traditional integrated photonic platforms, based on e.g. silicon and compound semiconductors, are reaching their limits and cannot keep up with the demands for more speed, less energy consumption, and advanced functionality. High performance thin film lithium niobate photonic platform [1] pioneered by my team can overcome these limitations. For example, our electro-optic modulators [2] can power up high-speed optical communication systems, as well as enable realization of mm-wave and THz communication systems [3]. Our frequency combs [4, 5] are important for environmental and biomedical monitoring, precision measurements and ranging. Finally, microwave-to-optical transducers [6, 7], based on electro-optic photonic molecule [8]/ frequency shifter [9] concept, can enable efficient and low noise interfaces between superconducting quantum computers, while TFLN photonic platform operating in visible [10] is important for realization of multiplexed quantum repeaters and quantum internet.
- D. Zhu, L. Shao, M. Yu, R. Cheng, B. Desiatov, C. J. Xin, Y. Hu, J. Holzgrafe, S. Ghosh, A. Shams-Ansari, E. Puma, N. Sinclair, C. Reimer, M. Zhang, and M. Lončar. “Integrated photonics on thin-film lithium niobate.” Advances in Optics and Photonics, 13, 242 (2021)
- C. Wang, M. Zhang, X. Chen, M. Bertrand, A. Shams-Ansari, S. Chandrasekhar, P. Winzer, and M. Lončar. “Integrated lithium niobate electro-optic modulators operating at CMOS-compatible voltages.” Nature, 562, 101 (2018)
- A. Herter, A. Shams-Ansari, F. F. Settembrini, H. K. Warner, J. Faist, M. Lončar, I. C. Benea-Chelmus, “Terahertz waveform synthesis from integrated lithium niobate circuits”, Nature Communications, 14, 11 (2023)
- M. Zhang, B. Buscaino, C. Wang, A. Shams-Ansari, C. Reimer, R. Zhu, J. Kahn, and M. Lončar. “Broadband electro-optic frequency comb generation in an integrated microring resonator.” Nature, 568, 373 (2019)
- M. J. Yu, D. Barton, R. Cheng, C. Reimer, P. Kharel, L. He, L. Shao, D. Zhu, Y. Hu, H. R. Grant, L. Johansson, Y. Okawachi, A. L. Gaeta, M. Zhang, and M. Lončar. “Integrated femtosecond pulse generator on thin-film lithium niobate, Nature, 612, 252 (2022)
- J. Holzgrafe, N. Sinclair, D. Zhu, A. Shams-Ansari, M. Colangelo, Y. Hu, M. Zhang, K. K. Berggren, and M. Lončar. “Cavity electro-optics in thin-film lithium niobate for efficient microwave-to-optical transduction.” Optica, 7, 1714 (2020)
- H. K. Warner, J. Holzgrafe, B. Yankelevich, D. Barton, S. Poletto, C. J. Xin, N. Sinclair, D. Zhu, E. Sete, B. Langley, E. Batson, M. Colangelo, A. Shams-Ansari, G. Joe, K. K. Berggren, L. Jiang, M. Reagor, and M. Loncar. “Coherent control of a superconducting qubit using light.” https://arxiv.org/abs/2310.16155 (2023)
- M. Zhang, C. Wang, Y. Hu, A. Shams-Ansari, T. Ren, S. Fan, and M. Loncar. “Electronically Programmable Photonic Molecule.” Nature Photonics, 13, Pp. 36–40 (2019)
- Y. Hu, M. Yu, D. Zhu, N. Sinclair, A. Shams-Ansari, L. Shao, J. Holzgrafe, E. Puma, M. Zhang, and M. Lončar. "On-chip electro-optic frequency shifters and beam splitters.” Nature, 599, 587 (2021).
- D. Renaud, D. R. Assumpcao, G. Joe, A. Shams-Ansari, D. Zhu, Y. Hu, N. Sinclair, and M. Lončar, “Sub-1 Volt and high-bandwidth visible to near-infrared electro-optic modulators”, Nature Communications, 14, 1496 (2023)
Bio:
Marko Lončar is Tiantsai Lin Professor of Electrical Engineering at Harvard's John A Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and chair of Electrical Engineering area. Lončar received his Diploma from University of Belgrade (R. Serbia) in 1997, and PhD from Caltech in 2003 (with Axel Scherer), both in Electrical Engineering. After completing his postdoctoral studies at Harvard (with Federico Capasso), he joined Harvard faculty in 2006. Lončar is expert in nanophotonics and nanofabrication, and his group has done pioneering work in the field of quantum and nonlinear nanophotonics. In particular, Lončar is recognized for his work on the development of diamond and thin film lithium niobate nanophotonic platforms. Lončar has co-authored more than 250 manuscripts in top scientific journals and has given more than 300 invited talks and seminars. He has received NSF CAREER Award in 2009, Sloan Fellowship in 2010, Marko Jarić Foundation Award in 2020, and Microoptics Conference Award in 2023. In recognition of his teaching activities, Lončar has been awarded Harvard University Levenson Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching (2012), and has been named Harvard College Professor in 2017. Lončar is Fellow of Optical Society of America and IEEE, as well as Senior Member of SPIE. He is co-founder of HyperLight Corporation (Cambridge, MA), VC backed startup commercializing lithium-niobate technology developed in his lab.
http://nano-optics.seas.harvard.edu