Research group · QPS
Integrated Photonics Lab
Building light on a chip — designing, fabricating, and characterizing integrated photonic circuits that route, modulate, detect, and generate light at the nanoscale for communications, precision sensing, and quantum photonic applications.
Overview
Photonic integration — placing lasers, waveguides, modulators, filters, and detectors on a single chip — opens the door to systems that are smaller, faster, more power-efficient, and harder to destabilize than their free-space or fiber-optic equivalents. The Integrated Photonics Lab works across the full design-to-measurement cycle: we design circuits using electromagnetic simulation tools, fabricate them in the VIAS Cleanroom, and characterize them on our Integrated Photonics Test Bench (PH-12).
We work on three material platforms that cover complementary capability spaces. Silicon photonics (SOI and silicon nitride) provides CMOS compatibility and dense integration. Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) offers electro-optic bandwidths exceeding 100 GHz and near-perfect transparency across a wide wavelength window. Indium phosphide and aluminum gallium arsenide platforms enable monolithic integration with laser sources and high-efficiency single-photon detectors. Selecting the right platform — or combining several in a heterogeneous assembly — is a central design challenge that runs through all our projects.
Applications span coherent optical communications (high-baud-rate IQ modulators, coherent receivers), distributed fiber sensing (optical frequency domain reflectometry chips), and quantum photonic circuits (entangled-photon sources, single-photon routing networks). We collaborate with the Quantum Sensing Group on chip-integrated atomic spectroscopy and with the Functional Materials Group on electro-optic thin-film integration.
Research themes
- Silicon and silicon nitride photonic circuit design and fabrication
- Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI): ultra-wideband electro-optic modulators
- III-V photonics: monolithic laser-modulator-detector integration
- Optical frequency combs on chip: microresonator dissipative Kerr solitons
- Chip-scale lidar and ranging for autonomous systems
- Integrated optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging engines
- Quantum photonic circuits: entangled-photon generation and routing
- Heterogeneous and hybrid photonic integration (wafer bonding, pick-and-place)
Current projects
Active · 2023–2027
SolitonComb
Microresonator-based optical frequency combs from silicon nitride rings. Targets deterministic soliton state access, repetition-rate stabilization below 1 Hz/s drift, and octave-spanning bandwidth suitable for self-referenced optical clockwork on a 4 mm × 6 mm chip footprint.
Funded by Veyra Strategic Research Fund · 560,000 cr
Active · 2022–2025
LNOIModulator
Thin-film lithium niobate modulators with 3-dB electro-optic bandwidths above 110 GHz for coherent 400G and beyond transceivers. Studies electrode geometry, waveguide dispersion engineering, and packaging strategies for hybrid co-integration with silicon CMOS drivers.
Funded by VIAS Applied Research Fund · 420,000 cr
Active · 2024–2026
QuantumRoute
Integrated photonic circuits for routing and demultiplexing single photons from quantum emitters. Develops low-loss (below 0.5 dB/cm) silicon nitride waveguide networks with integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors for on-chip quantum state discrimination.
Joint grant with Quantum Sensing Group · 480,000 cr
Active · 2023–2025
ChipLidar
Chip-scale frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) lidar for autonomous vehicle and robotics sensing. Integrates a narrow-linewidth swept laser, optical phased array, and balanced coherent receiver on a 6 cm × 3 cm SOI chip, targeting 150 m range at 5 cm depth resolution.
Funded by VIAS Core Grants Programme · 310,000 cr
Selected publications
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Veld, S., Nakamura, T., & Gómez, R. (2024). Deterministic soliton access in silicon nitride microresonators via fast pump detuning trajectories. Veyra Technical Reports. VEYRA-DOI:10.veyra/2024-ipl-001
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Veld, S. & Lindqvist, F. (2023). Thin-film LiNbO3 IQ modulators with 112 GHz 3-dB bandwidth at 1550 nm. Veyra Preprint Series. VEYRA-DOI:10.veyra/2023-ipl-004
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Nakamura, T., Okafor, C., & Veld, S. (2023). Low-loss silicon nitride waveguide platform for superconducting detector integration at 850 nm. Veyra Technical Reports. VEYRA-DOI:10.veyra/2023-ipl-007
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Auzou, M., Veld, S., & Rivas, C. (2021). Electro-optic thin-film modulators on lithium niobate-on-insulator: material integration strategies. Joint publication with Functional Materials Group. VEYRA-DOI:10.veyra/2021-qps-mme-001
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Gómez, R. & Veld, S. (2020). FMCW lidar range precision as a function of laser frequency chirp linearity in silicon photonic receivers. Veyra Preprint Series. VEYRA-DOI:10.veyra/2020-ipl-002
People
The lab is led by Dr. Sora Veld. Postdoctoral researchers: Taro Nakamura, Ricardo Gómez, Chioma Okafor, and Freya Lindqvist. Doctoral students: Daisuke Mori, Ioana Constantin, Aleksey Voronov, Nneka Uzoamaka, Samuel Bianchi, Mateus Carvalho, Petra Hájeková, Alistair McGrath, Hana Fujita, and Orlando Caruso. Four photonics engineers handle mask design, cleanroom process development, and test-bench operation. See graduate admissions for open doctoral positions.