Reconfigurable Nanophotonic Circuitry Enabled by Direct-Laser-Writing

Wafer scale nanofabrication has enabled efficient mass-production of photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In general, PICs are optimized for a desired task and thus cannot be reconfigured for a different application after fabrication. Here we present an approach for reconfiguring PICs by combining 3D direct-laser-writing (DLW) with planar nanofabrication. Erasable polymer waveguides made by DLW are used to interconnect arbitrary photonic on-chip building blocks made by traditional planar nanofabrication. Our approach not only enables post-fabrication programming of desired optical functionality but also allows for reconfiguring photonic circuits after fabrication.