Compact and high-resolution spectrometer via Brillouin integrated circuits

Optical spectrometers are indispensable tools across various fields, from chemical and biological sensing to astronomical observations and quantum technologies. However, the integration of spectrometers onto photonic chips has been hindered by the low spectral resolution or large device footprint with complex multiple channel operations. Here, we introduce a chip-integrated spectrometer by leveraging the acoustically-stimulated Brillouin scattering in a hybrid photonic-phononic chip. The Brillouin interaction provides a dynamic reflection grating with a high reflectivity up to 50% and a fast switching time on the microsecond scale, achieving a spectral resolution of 0.56 nm over a 110 nm bandwidth using just a single 1 mm-long straight waveguide. This performance approaches the fundamental limit of resolution for a given device size, validating the potential of the hybrid photonic-phononic device for efficient and dynamically-reconfigurable spectral analysis, and thus opens up the avenues for advanced optical signal processing and sensing applications.

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Publication Details

Journal
Nature Communications
Published
2025-11-29
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-66638-3
Primary Topic
Mechanical and Optical Resonators
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Compact and high-resolution spectrometer via Brillouin integrated circuits

Xin‐Biao Xu, Chang‐Ling Zou, Luyan Sun, Chun‐Hua Dong et al.
Nature Communications
Mechanical and Optical Resonators
article

Compact and high-resolution spectrometer via Brillouin integrated circuits

Xin‐Biao Xu, Chang‐Ling Zou, Luyan Sun, Chun‐Hua Dong, Zheng-Xu Zhu, Jia-Qi Wang, Lintao Xiao, Guang‐Can Guo, Shaolin Mao, Juanjuan Lu, Xiaoxuan Pan, Bo Zhang, Ming Li, Weiting Wang, Yuan-Hao Yang
article en

Abstract

Optical spectrometers are indispensable tools across various fields, from chemical and biological sensing to astronomical observations and quantum technologies. However, the integration of spectrometers onto photonic chips has been hindered by the low spectral resolution or large device footprint with complex multiple channel operations. Here, we introduce a chip-integrated spectrometer by leveraging the acoustically-stimulated Brillouin scattering in a hybrid photonic-phononic chip. The Brillouin interaction provides a dynamic reflection grating with a high reflectivity up to 50% and a fast switching time on the microsecond scale, achieving a spectral resolution of 0.56 nm over a 110 nm bandwidth using just a single 1 mm-long straight waveguide. This performance approaches the fundamental limit of resolution for a given device size, validating the potential of the hybrid photonic-phononic device for efficient and dynamically-reconfigurable spectral analysis, and thus opens up the avenues for advanced optical signal processing and sensing applications.

Nature CommunicationsVol. 17(1)
University of Science and Technology of China (CN), ShanghaiTech University (CN), Hefei University (CN), Quantum Design (Germany) (DE), Tsinghua University (CN)
National Natural Science Foundation of China, University of Science and Technology of China, National Key Research and Development Program of China, Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities
Openalex Percentile: Top 70%
Mechanical and Optical Resonators
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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