On-chip multifunctional self-configurable quadrilateral MZI network

Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits have garnered significant attention in recent years. To enhance the functional versatility of these devices, researchers have introduced the concept of reconfiguration into photonic integrated circuits. Inspired by field programmable gate arrays in the electrical domain, programmable photonic chips employing various topologies have been developed. However, users still encounter challenges when utilizing these devices, as they need to understand the internal structure and principles of the chip and individually adjust the tunable basic units within the topology network. In this paper, we employ the quadrilateral topological network based on the on-chip Mach–Zehnder interferometer as a black box to realize a highly self-reconfigurable optical signal processor. By leveraging this approach, we achieve positive real-valued matrix computation, optical routing, and low-loss optical energy splitting. Our demonstration effectively showcases the immense potential of on-chip programmable photonic waveguide meshes.