We performed measurements of photon correlation [$g^{(2)}(τ)$] in driven nonlinear high-$Q$ silicon (Si) photonic crystal (PhC) microcavities. The measured $g^{(2)}(τ)$ exhibits a damped oscillatory behavior when input pump power exceeds a critical value. From comparison between experiments and simulations, we attribute the measured oscillation of $g^{(2)}(τ)$ to self-pulsing (a limit cycle) emerging from an interplay between photon, carrier, and thermal dynamics. Namely, the oscillation frequency of $g^{(2)}(τ)$ corresponds to the oscillation period of the limit cycle, while its finite coherence (damping) time originates from the stochastic nature of the limit cycle. From the standpoint of phase reduction theory, we interpret the measured coherence time of $g^{(2)}(τ)$ as the coherence (diffusion) time of a generalized phase of the limit cycle. Furthermore, we show that an increase in laser input power enhances the coherence time of $g^{(2)}(τ)$ up to the order of microseconds, which could be a demonstration of the stabilization of a stochastic limit cycle through pumping.
A driven high-Q Si microcavity is known to exhibit limit cycle oscillation originating from carrier-induced and thermo-optic nonlinearities. We propose a novel nanophotonic device to realize synchronized optical limit cycle oscillations with coupled silicon (Si) photonic crystal (PhC) microcavities. Here, coupled limit cycle oscillators are realized by using coherently coupled Si PhC microcavities. By simulating coupled-mode equations, we theoretically demonstrate mutual synchronization (entrainment) of two limit cycles induced by coherent coupling. Furthermore, we interpret the numerically si…
We investigate a photonic device consisting of two coupled optical cavities possessing Rashba-Dresselhaus spin-orbit coupling, TE-TM splitting, and linear polarisation splitting that opens a tuneable energy gap at the diabolic points of the photon dispersion; giving rise to an actively addressable local Berry curvature. The proposed architecture stems from recent advancements in the design of artificial photonic gauge fields in liquid crystal cavities [K. Rechcińska et al., Science 366, 727 (2019)]. Our study opens new perspectives for topological photonics, room-temperature spinoptronics, and…
In this letter we introduce a complete photonic logic gate architecture, making use of the non-linear and spintronic properties of exciton-polaritons in semiconductor microcavities. This hybrid light-matter design is highly compact and offers the advantages expected of photonic circuits including: no distance-dependent loss or signal gradation; electrical isolation and immunity to electromagnetic interference; reduced error-checking overhead; and direct coupling to external light, useful for fibre optic communication.
We present the first findings of the new electrically-detected electron spin resonance technique (EDESR), which reveal the point defects in the ultra-narrow silicon quantum wells (Si-QW) confined by the superconductor delta-barriers. This technique allows the ESR identification without application of an external cavity, as well as a high frequency source and recorder, and with measuring the only response of the magnetoresistance, with internal GHz Josephson emission within frameworks of the normal-mode coupling (NMC) caused by the microcavities embedded in the Si-QW plane.
We present the first findings of the new electrically-detected EPR (EDEPR) technique which reveal different shallow and deep centers without using the external cavity as well as the hf source and recorder, with measuring the only magnetoresistance of the Si-QW confined by the superconductor delta-barriers.
Single-walled carbon nanotubes are a promising material as quantum light sources at room temperature and as nanoscale light sources for integrated photonic circuits on silicon. Here we show that integration of dopant states in carbon nanotubes and silicon microcavities can provide bright and high-purity single photon emitters on silicon photonics platform at room temperature. We perform photoluminescence spectroscopy and observe enhancement of emission from the dopant states by a factor of $\sim$100, and cavity-enhanced radiative decay is confirmed using time-resolved measurements, where $\sim…
A scheme is proposed for the generation of branch-entangled pairs of microcavity polaritons through spontaneous inter-branch parametric scattering. Branch-entanglement is achievable when there are two twin processes, where the role of signal and idler can be exchanged between two different polariton branches. Branch-entanglement of polariton pairs can lead to the emission of frequency-entangled photon pairs out of the microcavity. In planar microcavities, the necessary phase-matching conditions are fulfilled for pumping of the upper polariton branch at an arbitrary in-plane wave-vector. The im…
We present the findings of high efficient light absorption in self-assembled quantum wells (SQW) embedded in silicon microcavities that exhibit a distributed feedback identified by the FIR transmission spectra. The excitonic normal-mode coupling (NMC) is found to result in high efficient bound exciton photoluminescence in the range of the Rabi splitting. The bound excitons at the iron-boron pair and the erbium-related centers inserted in SQW are shown to cause giant exchange splitting of the center multiplets as a result of the strong sp-d and sp-f mixing in the absence of the external magneti…
The photonics involving II-VI epitaxial layers was limited so far to structures based on a single planar microcavity. Here, we present double, vertically coupled, ZnTe optical microcavities in planar and 3-D photonic molecule geometry. We design the structures with the help of transfer matrix method calculations and we establish their fabrication technology by molecular beam epitaxy. We characterize the samples by reflectivity spatial mapping and study them by measurements of angle-integrated and angle-resolved photoluminescence and reflectivity. We efficiently tailor the interaction strength …
Coupled states of semiconductor quantum well (QW) excitons and photons in a two dimensional (2D) periodic lattice of microcavities are analyzed theoretically, revealing allowed bands and forbidden gaps in the energy spectrum of exciton polaritons. Photonic crystal exciton polaritons have spatially uniform excitonic constituent set by flat QWs, but exhibit periodic Bloch oscillations in the plane of QWs due to their photonic component. The envelope functions of photonic crystal exciton polaritons can be tailored via effective potential of a photonic crystal heterostructure, by using quasi-perio…
The mean squared value of the photonic disorder is found to be reduced by a factor of 100 in a typical GaAs based microcavity, when exposed to a circularly polarized continuous wave optical pump without any special spatial patterning. Resonant excitation of the cavity mode excites a spatially non-uniform distribution of spin-polarized electrons, which depends on the photonic disorder profile. Electrons transfer spin to nuclei via the hyperfine contact interaction, inducing a long-living Overhauser magnetic field able to modify the potential of exciton-polaritons.
We investigate the optical properties of microcavities with suspended subwavelength structured mirrors, such as high-contrast gratings or two-dimensional photonic crystals slabs, and focus in particular on the regime in which the microcavity free-spectral range is larger than the width of a Fano resonance of the highly reflecting structured mirror. In this unusual regime, the transmission spectrum of the microcavity essentially consists in a single mode, whose linewidth can be significantly narrower than both the Fano resonance linewidth and the linewidth of an equally short cavity without str…
In this paper, we study valley degree of freedom in all dielectric silicon photonic graphene. Photonic band gap opening physics under inversion symmetry breaking is revisited by the viewpoint of nonzero valley Chern number. Bulk valley modes with opposite orbital angular momentum are unveiled by inspecting time-varying electric fields. Topological transition is well illustrated through photonic Dirac Hamiltonian. Valley dependent edge states and the associated valley-protected backscattering suppression around Z-shape bend waveguide have been demonstrated.
Organic microcavities are photonic nanostructures that strongly confine the electromagnetic field, allowing exotic quantum regimes of light-matter interaction with disordered organic semiconductors. The unambiguous interpretation of the spectra of organic microcavities has been a long-standing challenge due to several competing effects involving electrons, vibrations and cavity photons. Here we present a theoretical framework that is able to describe the main spectroscopic features of organic microcavities consistently. We introduce a class of light-matter excitations called dark vibronic pola…
We present the design, fabrication, and characterization of high quality factor and small mode volume planar photonic crystal cavities from cubic (3C) thin films (thickness ~ 200 nm) of silicon carbide (SiC) grown epitaxially on a silicon substrate. We demonstrate cavity resonances across the telecommunications band, with wavelengths from 1,250 - 1,600 nm. Finally, we discuss possible applications in nonlinear optics, optical interconnects, and quantum information science.
Quantum photonic integrated circuit (QPIC) is a promising tool for constructing integrated devices for quantum technology applications. In the optical regime, silicon photonics empowered by complementary-metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) technology provides optical components useful for realizing large-scale QPICs. Optical nonlinearity at the single-photon level is required for QPIC to facilitate photon-photon interaction. However, to date, realization of optical elements with deterministic( i.e., not probabilistic) single-photon nonlinearity by using silicon-based components is challenging, de…
We report on four-wave mixing in coupled photonic crystal nano-cavities on a silicon-on-insulator platform. Three photonic wire cavities are side-coupled to obtain three modes equally separated in energy. The structure is designed to be self-filtering, and we show that the pump is rejected by almost two orders of magnitudes. We study both the stimulated and the spontaneous four-wave mixing processes: owing to the small modal volume, we find that signal and idler photons are generated with a hundred-fold increase in efficiency as compared to silicon micro-ring resonators.
Analysis of exciton-polariton condensation under different pumping schemes for 1D and 2D microcavities including the effect of strong correlation between polaritons
Integration of single-photon sources and detectors to silicon-based photonics opens the possibility of complex circuits for quantum information processing. In this work, we demonstrate integration of quantum dots with a silicon photonic add-drop filter for on-chip filtering and routing of telecom single photons. A silicon microdisk resonator acts as a narrow filter that transfers the quantum dot emission and filters the background over a wide wavelength range. Moreover, by tuning the quantum dot emission wavelength over the resonance of the microdisk we can control the transmission of the emit…
