Data provided by National Institute of Standards and Technology
Theoretical calculation, modeling and experimental measurement data for the paper "Integrated optical isolators for broadband multi-laser operation" accepted for publication in Nature Photonics (2026)
Abstract: Photonic integrated circuits commonly feature visible or near-infrared lasers which are vulnerable to destabilizing back-reflections and must be protected by isolators — non-reciprocal optical components enforcing one-way light propagation. Despite recent progress, high performance isolators remain bulky off-chip components, while on-chip implementations suffer from challenging fabrication, high optical absorption, or narrow optical bandwidth. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a magnet-free, intrinsically broadband traveling-wave isolator built from foundry-compatible components. Using radio-frequency electro-optic modulation to create synthetic motion across four parallel waveguides, we realize dynamic rotating destructive interference that continuously cancels backward-propagating light while leaving forward-propagating light unaffected. We reach ≈30 dB peak isolation, maintain >24 dB isolation across a 30 nm wavelength span with thermo-optic adjustment and show >20 dB isolation for two lasers simultaneously within 10 nm without any adjustment. The demonstration’s 770 nm to 800 nm wavelength span covers key alkali atomic transitions, enabling on-chip laser isolation for atomic spectroscopy, laser cooling, and locking applications. Our isolator approach, applicable from the visible to telecom wavelength spectrum, offers a compelling practical solution, opening the way for fully integrated atomic clocks, quantum sensors, advanced telecommunications and tunable laser systems on a single chip.
About this Dataset
Updated: 2026-09-04
Metadata Last Updated:
2026-03-20 00:00:00
Date Created:
N/A
Data Provided by:
Dataset Owner:
N/A
| Title | Data for manuscript "Integrated optical isolators for broadband multi-laser operation" |
|---|---|
| Description | Theoretical calculation, modeling and experimental measurement data for the paper "Integrated optical isolators for broadband multi-laser operation" accepted for publication in Nature Photonics (2026) Abstract: Photonic integrated circuits commonly feature visible or near-infrared lasers which are vulnerable to destabilizing back-reflections and must be protected by isolators — non-reciprocal optical components enforcing one-way light propagation. Despite recent progress, high performance isolators remain bulky off-chip components, while on-chip implementations suffer from challenging fabrication, high optical absorption, or narrow optical bandwidth. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a magnet-free, intrinsically broadband traveling-wave isolator built from foundry-compatible components. Using radio-frequency electro-optic modulation to create synthetic motion across four parallel waveguides, we realize dynamic rotating destructive interference that continuously cancels backward-propagating light while leaving forward-propagating light unaffected. We reach ≈30 dB peak isolation, maintain >24 dB isolation across a 30 nm wavelength span with thermo-optic adjustment and show >20 dB isolation for two lasers simultaneously within 10 nm without any adjustment. The demonstration’s 770 nm to 800 nm wavelength span covers key alkali atomic transitions, enabling on-chip laser isolation for atomic spectroscopy, laser cooling, and locking applications. Our isolator approach, applicable from the visible to telecom wavelength spectrum, offers a compelling practical solution, opening the way for fully integrated atomic clocks, quantum sensors, advanced telecommunications and tunable laser systems on a single chip. |
| Modified | 2026-03-20 00:00:00 |
| Publisher Name | National Institute of Standards and Technology |
| Contact | mailto:[email protected] |
| Keywords | integrated photonics , integrated optical isolator , radio frequency photonics , traveling wave isolator , electro-optic modulator , photonic integrated circuit |
{
"identifier": "ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202",
"accessLevel": "public",
"contactPoint": {
"hasEmail": "mailto:[email protected]",
"fn": "Vladimir Aksyuk"
},
"programCode": [
"006:045"
],
"landingPage": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/id\/mds2-4202",
"title": "Data for manuscript \"Integrated optical isolators for broadband multi-laser operation\"",
"description": "Theoretical calculation, modeling and experimental measurement data for the paper \"Integrated optical isolators for broadband multi-laser operation\" accepted for publication in Nature Photonics (2026)\nAbstract: Photonic integrated circuits commonly feature visible or near-infrared lasers which are vulnerable to destabilizing back-reflections and must be protected by isolators \u2014 non-reciprocal optical components enforcing one-way light propagation. Despite recent progress, high performance isolators remain bulky off-chip components, while on-chip implementations suffer from challenging fabrication, high optical absorption, or narrow optical bandwidth. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a magnet-free, intrinsically broadband traveling-wave isolator built from foundry-compatible components. Using radio-frequency electro-optic modulation to create synthetic motion across four parallel waveguides, we realize dynamic rotating destructive interference that continuously cancels backward-propagating light while leaving forward-propagating light unaffected. We reach \u224830 dB peak isolation, maintain >24 dB isolation across a 30 nm wavelength span with thermo-optic adjustment and show >20 dB isolation for two lasers simultaneously within 10 nm without any adjustment. The demonstration\u2019s 770 nm to 800 nm wavelength span covers key alkali atomic transitions, enabling on-chip laser isolation for atomic spectroscopy, laser cooling, and locking applications. Our isolator approach, applicable from the visible to telecom wavelength spectrum, offers a compelling practical solution, opening the way for fully integrated atomic clocks, quantum sensors, advanced telecommunications and tunable laser systems on a single chip.",
"language": [
"en"
],
"distribution": [
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Extended_Data_Figure1\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Extended_Data_Figure1\/Extended%20Data%20Figure1a\/Extended_Data_Figure_1a_normalized_forward_transmission.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Extended_Data_Figure1\/Extended%20Data%20Figure1b\/Extended_Data_Figure_1b_normalized_forward_transmission.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Extended_Data_Figure5\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Extended_Data_Figure5\/Extended%20Data%20Figure%205a\/Extended_Data_Figure_5a_upper_pair_2D_map.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Extended_Data_Figure5\/Extended%20Data%20Figure%205b\/Extended_Data_Figure_5b_lower_pair_2D_map.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Extended_Data_Figure5\/Extended%20Data%20Figure%205c\/Extended_Data_Figure_5c_inter_pair_2D_map.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure1\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure1\/TOC.txt.sha256",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure1\/Figure1a\/Figure_1a_isolation_vs_wavelength.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3a_inset\/Figure_3a_inset_odd_harmonic_power_coefficients.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3b\/Figure_3b_measured_RF_power_spectrum.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3c\/Figure_3c_normalized_voltage_waveform.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3d\/Figure_3d_measured_point.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3d\/Figure_3d_theoretical_isolation.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3e\/Figure_3e_lower_active_transmission.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3e\/Figure_3e_upper_fixed_transmission.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure3\/Figure3f\/Figure_3f_optical_spectra.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure4\/Figure_4_double_laser_spectra.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Figure4\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Supplementary%20Information%20Figure%20S1\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Supplementary%20Information%20Figure%20S1\/FigureS1a\/Supplementary_Figure_S1a_forward_frequency_response.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Supplementary%20Information%20Figure%20S1\/FigureS1b\/Supplementary_Figure_S1b_RF_power_spectrum.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Supplementary%20Information%20Figure%20S4\/Supplementary_Figure_S4_optimized_heater_powers.csv",
"mediaType": "text\/csv"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/Supplementary%20Information%20Figure%20S4\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/ark:\/88434\/mds2-4202\/TOC.txt",
"mediaType": "text\/plain"
},
{
"format": "Text file",
"downloadURL": "https:\/\/data.nist.gov\/od\/ds\/mds2-4202\/README.txt",
"description": "A human-readable README text file",
"mediaType": "text\/plain",
"title": "README text file"
}
],
"bureauCode": [
"006:55"
],
"modified": "2026-03-20 00:00:00",
"publisher": {
"@type": "org:Organization",
"name": "National Institute of Standards and Technology"
},
"theme": [
"Physics:Optical physics",
"Physics:Atomic, molecular, and quantum",
"Nanotechnology:Nanophotonics",
"Nanotechnology:Nanofabrication\/manufacturing",
"Electronics:Optoelectronics"
],
"keyword": [
"integrated photonics",
"integrated optical isolator",
"radio frequency photonics",
"traveling wave isolator",
"electro-optic modulator",
"photonic integrated circuit"
]
}
