Ultrafast electrical control of dipolariton-based optical circuits with a few femto-joul per bit power consumption

Abstract

The next generation of photonic circuits will require programmable, ultrafast, and energy-efficient components on a scalable platform for quantum and neuromorphic computing. Here, we present ultrafast electrical control of highly nonlinear light-matter hybrid quasi-particles, called waveguide exciton-dipolaritons, with extremely low power consumption. Our device performs as an optical transistor with a GHz-rate electrical modulation at a record-low total energy consumption $\sim$3 fJ/bit and a compact active area of down to 25 $\mu$m$^2$. This work establishes waveguide-dipolariton platforms for scalable, electrically reconfigurable, ultra-low power photonic circuits for both classical and quantum computing and communication.