Kerr frequency combs for integrated polymer photonics

The advancement of quantum optical technologies depends on the transition to integrated chips based on quantum photonic elements. Significant part of research is focused on integrated quantum sources, for example, Kerr frequency combs. There are two main challenges – selecting materials with high nonlinear efficiency and developing the fabrication process suitable for these materials. Organic materials have large nonlinear coefficient values, which creates opportunities for lower power device fabrication. Polymers are compatible with other material photonic platforms, and they can be simply integrated through wet-coating methods, which is crucial for heterogeneous platform development. Here we show fabrication process and optical properties of Kerr frequency combs made with novel glass forming organic materials in host-guest systems. The results show that these materials have large third-order Kerr coefficient. Two types of designs were tested – spiral waveguides and frequency combs with ring resonators. Optical losses and in-device nonlinearities of fabricated structures were characterized.