Hybrid photonics beyond silicon

In the past years, significant progress has been made on the realization of high performance building blocks in photonic circuits, such as ultra-low loss waveguides, monolithic lasers, high-speed modulators, and high efficiency photodetectors. However, toward large scale integration with complete functions and breakthrough performance, there are still many challenging problems to solve. While silicon has proved to be an asset material for integrated optics, the combination of other materials with complementary properties has turned out to be critical for the realization of specific advanced photonic devices. Yet, the major challenge has been the materials’ differences that cause difficulties in hybrid integration. APL Photonics’ keen interest in the field leads us to offer this editorial, which will present a broad overview of the recent progress, current challenges, and future opportunities of hybrid photonics integration.