Photonic ICs with Photodetectors and Light Sources Based on Colloidal Quantum Dots—From Building Blocks to Advanced Demonstrators

Photonic integrated circuits or PICs are rapidly gaining importance. They are key in telecom and datacom and are now being studied for use in a broad range of other applications such as sensing, information processing and quantum optics. In particular PICs fabricated using methods borrowed from the CMOS industry, so called ‘silicon photonics’ have gained a lot of interest in recent decades, as they are compatible with large wafer substrates (up to 300mm) and can be fabricated in high-volume. Both silicon (for near and mid IR applications) and silicon nitride waveguides (for visible applications) are being used. However, some building blocks are still missing. In particular realizing efficient light sources is difficult on these platforms. But also novel types of detectors are still relevant, e.g. for wavelength regions where standard silicon or germanium detectors can no longer be used.
In this presentation, I will first review the current status of the field of silicon photonics and its applications, and then show how sources and detectors based on colloidal quantum dots can offer opportunities for realizing novel building blocks and more complex devices.