Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) allow for a variety of applications, including optical interconnects, microwave photonics, and quantum information. However, it remains a challenge to realize dense photonic-integrated components to fully meet the stringent requirements of large-scale photonic integration. Recently, researchers proposed that waveguide superlattices with an artificial gauge field could achieve broadband and robust zero-coupling performance for densely packed waveguides.

The cover of Advanced Photonics Volume 7 Issue 1 features a schematic illustrating a superlattice waveguide array, designed to serve as a robust solution for ultrabroadband, low-crosstalk, dense waveguide integration. This research also offers a versatile arrangement to study a range of fascinating scientific phenomena, including Rabi oscillations.

The image is based on original research presented in the article by Xuelin Zhang, Jiangbing Du, Ke Xu, and Zuyuan He, “Waveguide superlattices with artificial gauge field toward colorless and low-crosstalk ultrahigh-density photonic integration,” Adv. Photon. 7(1), 016002 (2025), doi: 10.1117/1.AP.7.1.016002.