LichtBriQ
About the Research Program
LichtBriQ: Lithium Niobate Thin Film Substrates and Structuring of Building Blocks for Integrated Quantum Optics
Photonic integrated circuits are one of the hottest current topics in the field of photonics, with the continuous development of integrated light sources, detectors and application-tailored products bringing unique advantages and value over current solutions based on fiber and free-space optics for end-users. While the commercial availability of a variety of chips from different material platforms, such as silicon, silicon nitride, and indium phosphide, is steadily increasing, there is a unique demand for new material platforms that can also make use of the quantum optical properties of light, to realize quantum photonic chips. The goal of LichtBriQ is the development of a full set of integrated, quantum-optical components based on thin film lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), not just as a proof-of-principle, but as a full industrial platform. The consortium will achieve this by advancing the scalability of the material platform through large-scale improvements in fabrication, structuring and processing steps of LNOI-wafers. Further, the unique advantages of the material platform for use in chip-scale electrooptical modulators and the creation of quantum light will be investigated to realize reproducible, scalable and flexible photonic circuits containing active and passive components for a variety of applications. The realized demonstrators will further showcase the potential and broad applicability of the material platform and pave the way towards realizing a fully European supply chain for photonic circuits based on LNOI, which is vital for quantum technologies and photonics as vital and strategic technology fields. In the consortium, Menlo Systems is developing chip-scale light sources based on LNOI as a key technology for quantum applications.
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We gratefully acknowledge funding by the BMBF.
