On-chip optical vector analysis based on thin-film lithium niobate single-sideband modulators

Optical vector analysis (OVA) is an enabling technology for comprehensively characterizing both amplitude and phase responses of optical devices or systems. Conventional OVA technologies are mostly based on discrete optoelectronic components, leading to unsatisfactory system sizes, complexity, and stability. They also encounter challenges in revealing the on-chip characteristics of integrated photonic devices, which are often overwhelmed by the substantial coupling loss and extra spectral response at chip facets. In this work, we demonstrate a miniaturized OVA system based on broadband single-sideband (SSB) modulators on a thin-film lithium niobate (LN) platform. The OVA could provide a direct probe of both amplitude and phase responses of photonic devices with kilohertz-level resolution and tens of terahertz of measurement bandwidth. We perform in situ characterizations of single and coupled microring resonators fabricated on the same chip as the OVA, unfolding their intrinsic loss and coupling states unambiguously. Furthermore, we achieve the direct measurement of collective phase dynamics and density of states of the Bloch modes in a synthetic frequency crystal by in situ OVA of a dynamically modulated microring resonator. Our OVA system provides a compact, high-precision, and broadband solution for characterizing future integrated photonic devices and circuits, with potential applications ranging from optical communications, biosensing, and neuromorphic computing, to quantum information processing. © The Authors. Published by SPIE and CLP under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Distribution or reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.