Recent Progress in Silicon Photonics

Dear Colleagues,

Silicon photonics has rapidly evolved from a research-driven technology into a key enabler of next-generation optical communications, computing, and sensing. By leveraging the scalability of CMOS-compatible fabrication, silicon photonics offers unprecedented opportunities for integrating photonic and electronic functions on a common platform. This convergence is driving advances in high-speed optical interconnects, low-power modulators, novel light sources, and large-scale integration of photonic circuits for data centers, telecommunications, and emerging applications such as quantum information processing, LiDAR, and biosensing.

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together cutting-edge contributions that advance the field of silicon photonics across device physics, circuit design, system integration, and applications. We welcome original research articles, reviews, and perspectives that address both fundamental and applied aspects of this technology.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Novel device designs for modulation, detection, and nonlinear optics;
• Heterogeneous and hybrid integration with III–V and 2D materials;
• Advanced packaging and fiber-to-chip coupling strategies;
• Photonic circuit architectures for communications and computing;
• Emerging applications in sensing, quantum technologies, and AI hardware;
• Simulation, modeling, and design automation tools for large-scale photonic systems.

This Special Issue seeks to provide a platform on which researchers and practitioners may share breakthroughs, identify challenges, and highlight future directions in silicon photonics. By offering a comprehensive collection of contributions, it will serve as both a reference for the current state of the art and a guidepost for the next generation of innovations in the field.

Dr. Deng Mao
Dr. Weijia Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Photonics is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• integrated photonic circuits
• fiber optics communication
• modulators
• detectors
• power splitters
• polarization management
• WDM
• heterogeneous and hybrid integration
• advanced packaging
• fiber-to-chip coupling
• design automation
• quantum computing
• photonics computing
• sensing
• LiDAR
• transceivers