Synchronization of silicon thermal free-carrier oscillators

Recent exploration of collective phenomena in oscillator arrays has highlighted the potential to access a range of physical phenomena, from fundamental quantum many-body dynamics to the solution of practical optimization problems using photonic Ising machines. Spontaneous oscillations often arise in these oscillator arrays as an imbalance between gain and loss. Due to coupling between individual arrays, the spontaneous oscillation is constrained and leads to interesting collective behavior, such as synchronized oscillations in optomechanical oscillator arrays, ferromagnetic-like coupling in delay-coupled optical parametric oscillators, and binary phase states in coupled laser arrays. A key aspect of arrays is not only the coupling between the individuals but also their compliance toward neighbor stimuli. One self-sustaining photonic oscillator that can be readily implemented in a scalable foundry based technology is based on the interaction of free carriers, temperature, and the optical field of a resonant silicon photonic microcavity. Here, we demonstrate that these silicon thermal free-carrier (FC) oscillators are extremely compliant to external excitation and can be synchronized up to their 16th harmonic using a weak seed. Exploring this unprecedented compliance to external stimuli, we also demonstrate robust synchronization between two thermal FC oscillators. & COPY; 2023 Optica Publishing Group

Automated summary

Recent exploration of oscillator arrays has revealed their potential in accessing a wide range of physical phenomena, from quantum dynamics to optimization problems. Spontaneous oscillations arise in these arrays due to imbalance between gain and loss. Coupling between arrays leads to interesting collective behaviors such as synchronized oscillations and phase states. One particular photonic oscillator, based on silicon thermal free-carriers, shows high compliance to external excitation and can achieve synchronization up to the 16th harmonic.