Inverse Design of Integrated Photonic Components for Visible-Light Applications

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) operating in the visible spectral range are crucial for quantum technologies, optical sensing, and nonlinear optics applications.

By Stockinger, Šimić, Adeniran +3Oct 8, 2026

Score████░░░░░░4.3

Caveats

Preprint; not yet peer reviewed.

VerdictWorth a reader's time today.

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Abstract

Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) operating in the visible spectral range are crucial for quantum technologies, optical sensing, and nonlinear optics applications. However, their development is hampered by limited integration density and operational bandwidth, linked to low refractive index contrast and restricted parameter space in intuition-based PIC design. We address these bottlenecks with an adjoint-based, fabrication-aware inverse design workflow tailored for visible-spectrum photonics. By expanding the capabilities of FDTDX, an open-source, GPU-accelerated FDTD solver, we provide a versatile memory and runtime efficient inverse design platform. Demonstrating this approach on a silicon nitride (Si3N4) platform, we design, fabricate, and experimentally validate ultra-compact, broadband components for light routing, multiplexing, and polarization control. This work provides a scalable framework for high-density, high-performance visible-light PICs.

Christoph Stockinger, Marko Šimić, John O. Adeniran, Natale G. Pruiti, Marc Sorel, Peter Banzer

The editor's rubric

Heuristic review

Dimension	Level	Weight	What that level means
Leverage	████░ 4	18%	A general-purpose tool used across several fields (Adam, ResNet, LoRA, next-generation sequencing).
Magnitude	██░░░ 2	20%	Solid incremental gain on a meaningful problem.
Evidence	███░░ 3	22%	Solid: multiple benchmarks or cohorts, ablations, fair baselines, released code or data.
Novelty	██░░░ 2	22%	A new combination of known ideas.
Trajectory	███░░ 3	10%	A clear path to scale.
Stakes	██░░░ 2	8%	Benefits a professional community (practitioners, clinicians, engineers).

Editor’s rationale

Heuristic triage from title and abstract text only, not a reading of the paper. Cues found: method (we propose, new method); breadth (programmable); verification (experimental validation, code released); scale (scalable, efficient).

How the score was computed

rank-2026-10-07

Score████░░░░░░4.3

Score = 10 × (75% × adjusted merit / 10 + 15% × attention + 10% × freshness)

Merit: 5.4 / 10; Weighted rubric, evidence-gated.
Adjusted merit: 4.6 / 10; Shrunk toward the desk prior by editor confidence (42%).
Attention: 0%; Citations, upvotes, points, mentions.
Freshness: 91%; Half-life decay since publication.

No attention signals recorded yet.

The record

Reviewed by heuristic-v5 on Oct 9, 2026, 07:29 UTC. Paper type: method.
Categories: physics.optics, physics.app-ph, physics.comp-ph
TOP, No.6 in the Physics edition of October 9, 2026.