All-silicon low-loss THz temporal differentiator based on microring waveguide resonator platform

Abstract

Microring resonators have been widely used in passive optical devices such as wavelength division multiplexers, differentiators, and integrators. Research on terahertz (THz) components has been accelerated by these photonics technologies. Compact and integrated time-domain differentiators that enable low-loss, high-speed THz signal processing are necessary for THz applications. In this study, an on-chip THz temporal differentiator based on all-silicon photonic technology was developed. This device primarily consisted of a microring waveguide resonator and was packaged with standard waveguide compatibility. It performed time-domain differentiation on input signals at a frequency of 405.45 GHz with an insertion loss of 2.5 dB and a working bandwidth of 0.36 GHz. Various periodic waveforms could be handled by this differentiator. This device could work as an edge detector, which detected step-like edges in high-speed input signals through differential effects. This development holds significant promise for future THz data processing technologies and THz communication systems.

Keywords

• silicon photonics
• whispering gallery mode resonator
• thz silicon waveguide