VortexChat: An agentic framework for autonomous multi-objective integrated photonic design
Authors: Faqian Chong, Yulun Wu, Shilong Li, Andrew Forbes, Hongsheng Chen, Song Han
Organizations: Innovative Institute of Electromagnetic Information and Electronic Integration, College of Information Science & Electronic Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310027, China. · ZJU-Hangzhou Global Scientific and Technological Innovation Center, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310200, China. · International Joint Innovation Center, The Electromagnetics Academy at Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Haining 314400, China. · Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro-nano Transducers Technology, Shaoxing Institute of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Shaoxing 312000, China. · School of Physics, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, Wits 2050, South Africa. · Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Advanced Micro/Nano Electronic Devices & Smart Systems, Jinhua Institute of Zhejiang University, Zhejiang University, Jinhua 321099, China.
The advancement of modern integrated photonics is frequently bottlenecked by device design workflows that rely heavily on manual simulation and expert intuition. While inverse design offers an alternative, it remains constrained by expert supervision and a lack of end-to-end automation. To address these issues, we present VortexChat, an agentic framework for the autonomous, end-to-end inverse design of integrated photonic devices directly from natural language specifications. VortexChat couples a large language model (LLM) decision agent with topology generation, gradient-based refinement, and full-wave electromagnetic simulation. This closed-loop architecture enables the system to iteratively decompose design objectives, orchestrate computational tools, and update strategies based on feedback with minimal human intervention. Constrained by the absolute metrics of the Vortex100 Benchmark, VortexChat autonomously generates devices that strictly meet all predefined performance thresholds without any human-in-the-loop. As an experimental demonstration, we fabricated a broadband terahertz perfect vortex beam multiplexer, autonomously designed by VortexChat, with measurements confirming high-efficiency operation, high mode purity and low inter-channel crosstalk in agreement with full-wave simulations. These results demonstrate that an LLM agent can assume key aspects of expert decision-making in photonic inverse design while maintaining physical fidelity and fabrication feasibility, providing a scalable route towards autonomous design of complex integrated photonic systems.
Department of Electronic and Computer Engineering, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology · 2Microelectronics Thrust, The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou)
Australian AI Institute, University of Technology Sydney · School of Artificial Intelligence, Shenzhen University · School of Information and Communication Engineering, Hainan University