Recently, the team led by Prof. Xingjun Wang and Researcher Haowen Shu at the Center has achieved the fusion of modulation and amplification functionalities on an erbium-doped thin-film lithium niobate (Er:TFLN) platform. In a 9.16-cm-long waveguide amplifier, they obtained an internal net gain as high as 38 dB, setting a new record. Meanwhile, leveraging the strong Pockels effect of the host material, they realized ultra-broadband electro-optic modulation with a bandwidth of up to 53 GHz and operating frequencies reaching 170 GHz, fabricated in parallel with the waveguide amplifier using a zero-change process.

In addition, the team demonstrated this functional integration in two signal-processing scenarios: self-amplified digital signal encoding and pre-amplified broadband RF front-end reception. The results show that the signal recovery quality is significantly improved compared with off-chip gain. This integration of modulation and amplification holds great potential for applications such as optical interconnects, LiDAR, and microwave photonics, and can substantially enhance system complexity and network depth.

On November 25, 2025, the research results were published online in the Nature journal Nature Communications under the title “Unifying gain and electro-optical dynamics in Er-doped thin-film lithium niobate platform.”

Original article link: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-65460-1