On-chip metamaterial-enabled high-order mode-division multiplexing

• Published in: Advanced photonics 2023-09, Vol.5 (5), p.056008-056008
• Main Authors: He, Yu, Li, Xingfeng, Zhang, Yong, An, Shaohua, Wang, Hongwei, Wang, Zhen, Chen, Haoshuo, Huang, Yetian, Huang, Hanzi, Fontaine, Nicolas K., Ryf, Roland, Du, Yuhan, Sun, Lu, Ji, Xingchen, Guo, Xuhan, Song, Yingxiong, Zhang, Qianwu, Su, Yikai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 2577-5421; 2577-5421
• DOI: 10.1117/1.AP.5.5.056008

Mode-division multiplexing (MDM) technology enables high-bandwidth data transmission using orthogonal waveguide modes to construct parallel data streams. However, few demonstrations have been realized for generating and supporting high-order modes, mainly due to the intrinsic large material group-velocity dispersion (GVD), which make it challenging to selectively couple different-order spatial modes. We show the feasibility of on-chip GVD engineering by introducing a gradient-index metamaterial structure, which enables a robust and fully scalable MDM process. We demonstrate a record-high-order MDM device that supports TE0–TE15 modes simultaneously. 40-GBaud 16-ary quadrature amplitude modulation signals encoded on 16 mode channels contribute to a 2.162  Tbit  /  s net data rate, which is the highest data rate ever reported for an on-chip single-wavelength transmission. Our method can effectively expand the number of channels provided by MDM technology and promote the emerging research fields with great demand for parallelism, such as high-capacity optical interconnects, high-dimensional quantum communications, and large-scale neural networks.