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OptoElectronics and Communications Conference and International Conference on Photonics in Switching and Computing (OECC/PSC)

A Phase-Optimal Linear Photonic Architecture

Ryan Hamerly, Alexander Sludds, Dirk Englund

Published Sep 26, 2023• 0 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We derive the information-theoretic limit to phase-shift efficiency of universal multiport interferometers, and propose an architecture that approaches this limit to within a factor of 2×, approximately a 10× improvement over the prior art.
DOI
10.1109/psc57974.2023.10297225

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Universal multiport interferometers, which can be programmed to implement any linear transformation between multiple channels, are emerging as a powerful tool for both classical and quantum photonics. These interferometers are typically composed of a regular mesh of beam splitters and phase shifters, allowing for straightforward fabrication using integrated photonic architectures and ready scalability. The current, standard design for universal multiport interferometers is based on work by Reck et al. [Phys. Rev. Lett.73, 58 (1994)PRLTAO0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.73.58]. We demonstrate a new design for universal multiport interferometers based on an alternative arrangement of beam splitters and phase shifters, which outperforms that by Reck et al. Our design requires half the optical depth of the Reck design and is significantly more robust to optical losses.
The scalability of many programmable photonic circuits is limited by the 2π2π2π tuning range needed for the constituent phase shifters. To address this problem, we introduce the concept of a phase-efficient circuit architecture, where the average phase shift is ≪2π\ll 2π≪2π. We derive a universal information-theoretic limit to the phase-shift efficiency of universal multiport interferometers, and propose a "3-MZI" architecture that approaches this limit to within a factor of 2×2\times2×, approximately a 10×10\times10× reduction in average phase shift over the prior art, where the average phase shift scales inversely with system size as O(1/N)O(1/\sqrt{N})O(1/N​). For non-unitary circuits, we show that the 3-MZI saturates the theoretical bound for Gaussian-distributed target matrices. Using this architecture, we show optical neural network training with all phase shifters constrained to ≲0.2\lesssim 0.2≲0.2 radians without loss of accuracy.
The scalability of many programmable photonic circuits is limited by the 2π tuning range needed for the constituent phase shifters. To address this problem, we introduce the concept of a phase-efficient circuit architecture, where the average phase shift is ≪2π. We derive a universal information-theoretic limit to the phase-shift efficiency of universal multiport interferometers and, based on a modified Mach–Zehnder Interferometer (MZI) design, propose a “3-MZI” architecture that approaches this limit to within a factor of 2×, approximately a 10× reduction in average phase shift over the prior art, where the average phase shift scales inversely with system size N as O(1/N). For non-unitary circuits, we show that the 3-MZI saturates the theoretical bound for Gaussian-distributed target matrices. Using this architecture, we show optical neural network training with all phase shifters constrained to ≲0.2 radians without loss of accuracy.