An optical fiber-based probe for photonic crystal microcavities
Kartik Srinivasan, Paul E. Barclay, Matthew Borselli, Oskar Painter
备注：
Submitted to special section on photonic crystals from the PECS-V conference in IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (J-SAC), Nanotechnologies for Communications issue
发表信息：
IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications (special issue on photonic crystals), Vol. 23, No. 7, pp. 1321-1329, July 2005
We review a novel method for characterizing both the spectral and spatial properties of resonant cavities within two-dimensional photonic crystals (PCs). An optical fiber taper serves as an external waveguide probe whose micron-scale field is used to source and couple light from the cavity modes, which appear as resonant features in the taper's wavelength-dependent transmission spectrum when it is placed within the cavity's near field. Studying the linewidth and depth of these resonances as a function of the taper's position with respect to the resonator produces quantitative measurements of the quality factor Q and modal volume Veff of the resonant cavity modes. Polarization information about the cavity modes can be obtained by studying their depths of coupling when the cavity is probed along different axes by the taper. This fiber-based technique has been used to measure Q ~ 40,000 and Veff ~ 0.9 cubic wavelengths in a graded square lattice PC microcavity fabricated in silicon. The speed and versatility of this fiber-based probe is highlighted, and a discussion of its applicability to other wavelength-scale resonant elements is given.
Photonic molecules, named by analogy with chemical molecules, are clusters of closely located electromagnetically interacting microcavities or "photonic atoms". As two or several microcavities are brought close together, their optical modes interact, and a rich spectrum of photonic molecule supermodes emerges, which depends both on geometrical and material properties of individual cavities and on their mutual interactions. Here, we discuss ways of controllable manipulation of photonic molecule supermodes, which improve or add new functionalities to microcavity-based optical components. We pres…
Second-harmonic and sum-frequency mixing phenomena associated with 3D-localized photonic modes are studied in InP-based planar photonic crystal microcavities excited by short-pulse radiation near 1550 nm. Three-missing-hole microcavities that support two closely-spaced modes exhibit rich second-order scattering spectra that reflect intra- and inter-mode mixing via the bulk InP chi(2) during ring-down after excitation by the broadband, resonant pulse. Simultaneous excitation with a non-resonant source results in tunable second-order radiation from the microcavity.
The latest achievements in the fabrication of black phosphorus thin layers, towards the technological breakthrough of a phosphorene atomically thin layer, are paving the way for a their employment in electronics, optics, and optoelectronics. In this work, we have simulated the optical properties of one-dimensional photonic structures, i.e. photonic crystals and microcavities, in which few-layer black phosphorus is one of the components. The insertion of the 5 nm black phosphorous layers leads to a photonic band gap in the photonic crystals and a cavity mode in the microcavity interesting for l…
Third-order nonlinear optical effects in photonic microcavities are studied. Significant light defocusing in the thin nonlinear microcavity spacer was observed. The polarization self-action effect was detected, when the large nonlinear polarization rotation angle arises when exciting the microcavity mode, being proportional to the radiation intensity.
Using a 3D fully-vectorial nonlinear time-domain analysis we numerically investigate the generation of terahertz radiation by pumping a photonic crystal microcavity out of resonance. High quality factors and a quadratic susceptibility lead to few-cycle terahertz pulses via optical rectification. Material dispersion as well as linear and nonlinear anisotropy is fully accounted for.
By numerically integrating the three-dimensional Maxwell equations in the time domain with reference to a dispersive quadratically nonlinear material, we study second harmonic generation in planar photonic crystal microresonators. The proposed scheme allows efficient coupling of the pump radiation to the defect resonant mode. The out-coupled generated second harmonic is maximized by impedance matching the photonic crystal cavity to the output waveguide.
A two-dimensional photonic crystal microcavity design supporting a wavelength-scale volume resonant mode with a calculated quality factor (Q) insensitive to deviations in the cavity geometry at the level of Q~2x10^4 is presented. The robustness of the cavity design is confirmed by optical fiber-based measurements of passive cavities fabricated in silicon. For microcavities operating in the lambda = 1500 nm wavelength band, quality factors between 1.3-4.0x10^4 are measured for significant variations in cavity geometry and for resonant mode normalized frequencies shifted by as much as 10% of the…
We demonstrate laser-written concave hemispherical structures produced on the endfacets of optical fibers that serve as mirror substrates for tunable open-access microcavities. We achieve finesse values of up to 250, and a mostly constant performance across the entire stability range. This enables cavity operation also close to the stability limit, where a peak quality factor of $1.5\times 10^4$ is reached. Together with a small mode waist of $2.3\; \mathrm{μm}$, the cavity achieves a Purcell factor of $C \sim 2.5$, which is useful for experiments that require good lateral optical access or ot…
We demonstrate the first monolithically integrated linear photonic crystal microcavities in an advanced SOI CMOS microelectronics process (IBM 45nm 12SOI) with no in-foundry process modifications. The cavities were integrated into a standard microelectronics design flow meeting process design rules, and fabricated alongside transistors native to the process. We demonstrate both 1520nm wavelength and 1180nm cavity designs using different cavity implementations due to design rule constraints. For the 1520nm and 1180nm designs, loaded quality factors of 2,000 and 4,000 are measured, and intrinsic…
The optical properties of vanadium dioxide ($VO_2$) can be tuned via metal-insulator transition. In this work different types of one-dimensional photonic structure-based microcavities that embed vanadium dioxide have been studied in the spectral range between 900 nm and 2000 nm. In particular, $VO_2$ has been sandwiched between: i) two photonic crystals made of $SiO_2$ and $ZrO_2$; ii) two aperiodic structures made of $SiO_2$ and $ZrO_2$ that follow the Thue-Morse sequence; iii) two disordered photonic structures, made of $SiO_2$ and $ZrO_2$ in which the disorder is introduced either by a rand…
We design, fabricate, and experimentally demonstrate a compact thermo-optic gate switch comprising a 3.78 um-long coupled L0-type photonic crystalmicrocavities on a silicon-on-insulator substrate. A nanohole is inserted in the center of each individual L0 photonic crystalmicrocavity. Coupling between identical microcavities gives rise to bonding and anti-bonding states of the coupled photonic molecules. The coupled photonic crystalmicrocavities are numerically simulated and experimentally verified with a 6 nm-wide flat-bottom resonance in its transmission spectrum, which enables wider operatio…
We propose a scheme for efficient cavity-enhanced nonlinear THz generation via difference-frequency generation (DFG) processes using a triply resonant system based on photonic crystal cavities. We show that high nonlinear overlap can be achieved by coupling a THz cavity to a doubly-resonant, dual-polarization near-infrared (e.g. telecom band) photonic-crystal nanobeam cavity, allowing the mixing of three mutually orthogonal fundamental cavity modes through a chi(2) nonlinearity. We demonstrate through coupled-mode theory that complete depletion of the pump frequency - i.e., quantum-limited con…
A narrow linewidth laser operating at the telecommunications band combined with both fast and wide-band tuning features will have promising applications. Here, we demonstrate a single-mode (both transverse and longitude mode) continuous microlaser around 1535 nm based on a fiber Fabry-Pérot microcavity, which achieves wide-band tuning without mode hopping to 1.3 THz range and fast tuning rate to 60 kHz, yields a frequency scan rate of $1.6\times10^{17}$ Hz/s. Moreover, the linewidth of the laser is measured as narrow as 3.1 MHz. As the microlaser combines all these features into one fiber comp…
Optical resonances in 1D photonic crystal microcavities are investigated numerically using finite-element light scattering and eigenmode solvers. The results are validated by comparison to experimental and theoretical findings from the literature. The influence of nanometer-scale geometry variations on the resonator performance is studied. Limiting factors to ultra-high Q-factor performance are identified.
A technique is demonstrated which efficiently transfers light between a tapered standard single-mode optical fiber and a resonant mode of a high-Q photonic crystal cavity with mode volume less than a cubic wavelength in size. Cavity mode quality factors of 4.7 x 10^4 are measured, and a total fiber-to-cavity coupling efficiency of 44% is demonstrated.
The employment of magneto-optical materials to fabricate photonic crystals gives the unique opportunity to achieve optical tuning by applying a magnetic field. In this study we have simulated the transmission spectrum of a microcavity in which the Bragg reflectors are made with silica (SiO2) and yttria (Y2O3) and the defect layer is made with TGG (Tb3Ga5O12). We show that the application of an external magnetic field results in a tuning of the defect mode of the microcavity. In the simulations we have considered the wavelength dependence of the refractive indexes and the Verdet constants of th…
A large body of work has accumulated over the years in the study of the optical properties of single and coupled microcavities for a variety of applications, ranging from filters to sensors and lasers. The focus has been mostly on the geometry of individual resonators and/or on their combination in arrangements often referred to as photonic molecules (PMs). Our primary concern will be the lasing properties of PMs as ideal candidates for the fabrication of integrated microlasers, photonic molecule lasers. Whereas most calculations on PM lasers have been based on cold-cavity (passive) modes, i.e…
The authors study the ultrafast switching-on and -off of planar GaAs/AlAs microcavities. Up to 0.8% refractive index changes are achieved by optically exciting free carriers at 1720 nm and a pulse energy of 1.8 micro Joules. The cavity resonance is dynamically tracked by measuring reflectivity versus time delay with tunable laser pulses, and is found to shift by as much as 3.3 linewidths within a few picoseconds. The switching-off occurs with a decay time of around 50 ps. The authors derive the dynamic behavior of the carrier density and of the complex refractive index. They propose that the i…
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…
Bound states in the continuum (BICs) in photonic crystal slabs represent the resonances with an infinite quality(Q)-factor, occurring above the light line for an infinitely periodic structure. We show that a set of BICs can turn into quasi-BICs with a very high Q-factor even for two or three unit cell structures. They are explained by a viewpoint of BICs originating from the tight binding of individual resonances of each unit cell as in semiconductors. Combined with a reciprocal-space matching technique, the microcavities based on quasi-BICs can achieve a Q-factor as high as defect-based PhC m…
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…
Inorganic-organic perovskites semiconductors are becoming increasingly interesting due to their remarkable optical properties, such as a high photoluminescence quantum yield and the possibility to show optical gain in a broad range of wavelengths. We have here simulated microcavities that embed MaPBI3 and 2D hybrid organic inorganic perovskite semiconductors by sandwiching such active layers between periodic, aperiodic and disordered photonic structures. We have carefully considered the refractive index dispersion of all the materials employed, such silicon dioxide, titanium dioxide and the pe…
Coherent phonon generation by optical pump-probe experiments has enabled the study of acoustic properties at the nanoscale in planar heterostructures, plasmonic resonators, micropillars and nanowires. Focalizing both pump and probe on the same spot of the sample is a critical part of pump-probe experiments. This is particularly relevant in the case of small objects. The main practical challenges for the actual implementation of this technique are: stability of the spatio-temporal overlap, reproducibility of the focalization and optical mode matching conditions. In this work, we solve these thr…
Light responsive devices employing molecular photo-switches are interesting for displays and dynamic light filtering. In this work, polymeric microcavities embedding a layer of photochromic compound have been studied by means of the transfer matrix method. Different polymers, such as poly vinyl carbazole, poly styrene and cellulose acetate, have been used. A microcavity that includes random one-dimensional photonic structures sandwiching the photochromic layer has also been studied. Propagation of light pulses through the microcavities has been analysed.
Optical microcavities based on zero-group-velocity surface modes in photonic crystal slabs are studied. It is shown that high quality factors can be easily obtained for such microcavities in photonic crystal slabs. With increasing of the cavity length, the quality factor is gradually enhanced and the resonant frequency converges to that of the zero-group-velocity surface mode in the photonic crystal. The number of the resonant modes with high quality factors is mainly determined by the number of surface modes with zero-group velocity.
In this work we present a platform for testing the device performance of a cavity-emitter system, using an ensemble of emitters and a tapered optical fiber. This method provides high-contrast spectra of the cavity modes, selective detection of emitters coupled to the cavity, and an estimate of the device performance in the single- emitter case. Using nitrogen-vacancy (NV) centers in diamond and a GaP optical microcavity, we are able to tune the cavity onto the NV resonance at 10 K, couple the cavity-coupled emission to a tapered fiber, and measure the fiber-coupled NV spontaneous emission deca…
We propose and design photonic crystal cavities (PCCs) in hexagonal boron nitride (hBN) for diverse photonic and quantum applications. Two dimensional (2D) hBN flakes contain quantum emitters which are ultra-bright and photostable at room temperature. To achieve optimal coupling of these emitters to optical resonators, fabrication of cavities from monolithic hBN is therefore required, to maximize the overlap between cavity optical modes and the emitters. Here, we design 2D and 1D PCCs using anisotropic indices of hBN. The influence of underlying substrates and material absorption are investiga…
Lithium niobate (LN) is an excellent nonlinear optical and electro-optic material that has found many applications in classical nonlinear optics, optical fiber communications and quantum photonics. Here we review the recent development of thin-film LN technology that has allowed the miniaturization of LN photonic devices and microcavities with ultrahigh quality factors. We discuss the design principle of LN devices that makes use of the largest nonlinear coefficients, various device fabrication approaches and resulting device performances, and the current and potential applications of LN micro…
We present the design of two-dimensional photonic crystal microcavities in thin diamond membranes well suited for coupling of color centers in diamond. By comparing simulated and ideal field distributions in Fourier and real space and by according modification of air hole positions and size, we optimize the cavity structure yielding high quality factors up to Q = 320000 with a modal volume of V = 0.35 (lambda/n)^3. Using the very same approach we also improve previous designs of a small modal volume microcavity in silicon, gaining a factor of 3 in cavity Q. In view of practical realization of …
Stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in ultra-high-Q surface-tension-induced spherical and chip-based toroid microcavities is considered both theoretically and experimentally. These microcavities are fabricated from silica, exhibit small mode volume (typically 1000 $μm^{3}$) and possess whispering-gallery type modes with long photon storage times (in the range of 100 ns), significantly reducing the threshold for stimulated nonlinear optical phenomena. Oscillation threshold levels of less than 100 $μ$% -Watts of launched fiber pump power, in microcavities with quality factors of 100 million are ob…
Bosons hopping across sites and interacting on-site are the essence of the Bose-Hubbard model (BHM). Inspired by the success of BHM simulators with atoms in optical lattices, proposals for implementing the BHM with photons in coupled nonlinear cavities have emerged. Two coupled semiconductor microcavities constitute a model system where the hopping, interaction, and decay of exciton polaritons --- mixed light-matter quasiparticles --- can be engineered in combination with site-selective coherent driving to implement the driven-dissipative two-site optical BHM. Here we explore the interplay of …
Engineering Tunable Synthetic Su-Schrieffer-Heeger Chains in Liquid Crystal Microcavities
Institute of Experimental Physics, Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw（华沙大学物理学院实验物理研究所）；Institute of Applied Physics, Military University of Technology（军事理工大学应用物理研究所）；Institute of Chemistry, Military University of Technology（军事理工大学化学研究所）
This paper introduces a new approach to neuromorphic photonics in which microcavities exhibiting strong exciton-photon interaction may serve as building blocks of optical spiking neurons. The experimental results demonstrate the intrinsic property of exciton-polaritons to resemble the Leaky Integrate-and-Fire spiking mechanism. It is shown that exciton-polariton microcavities when non-resonantly pumped with a pulsed laser exhibit leaky-integration due to relaxation of the excitonic reservoir, threshold-and-fire mechanism due to transition to Bose-Einstein condensate, and resetting due to stimu…
Multicomponent Bose-Einstein condensates, quantum Hall systems, and chiral magnetic materials display twists and knots in the continuous symmetries of their order parameter, known as Skyrmions. Originally discovered as solutions to the nonlinear sigma model in quantum field theory, these vectorial excitations are quantified by a topological winding number dictating their interactions and global properties of the host system. Here, we report the first experimental observation of a stable individual second order meron, and antimeron, appearing in an electromagnetic field. These complex textures …
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 cohere…
We introduce a small-core air-guiding photonic crystal fiber whose cladding is made of improved air-silica photonic crystal with non-circular air holes placed in triangular lattice. The fiber achieves un-disturbed bandgap guidance over 350nm wavelength range.
The ultralong distance coupling between two Asymmetric Resonant Microcavities (ARCs) is studied. Different from traditional short distance tunneling coupling between microcavities, the high efficient free space directional emission and excitation allow ultralong distance energy transfer between ARCs. In this paper, a novel unidirectional emission ARC, which shows directionality I40 = 0.54, is designed for materials of refractive index n = 2.0. Compared with regular whispering gallery microresonators, the coupled unidirectional emission ARCs show modulations of resonance frequency and linewidth…
Electro-optical control of on-chip photonic devices is an essential tool for efficient integrated photonics. Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) is an emerging platform for on-chip photonics due to its large electro-optic coefficient and high nonlinearity [1]. Integrating quantum emitters into LNOI would extend their versatile use in classic photonics to quantum computing and communication [2, 3]. Here, we incorporate single rare-earth ions (REI) quantum emitters in electro-optical tunable lithium niobite (LN) thin films and demonstrate control of LN microcavities coupled to REI over a frequen…
Optical waveguide segments based on geometrically unbound photonic crystal fibers (PCF) designs could be exploited as building blocks to realize miniaturized complex devices which implement advanced photonic operations. Here, we show how to fabricate optical waveguide segments with PCF designs by direct high-resolution 3D printing and how the combination of these segments can realise complex photonic devices. We demonstrate the unprecedented precision and flexibility of our method by fabricating the first-ever fiber polarising beam splitter based on PCFs. The device was directly printed in one…
We present a formal analogy between the eigenvalue problem for guided scalar modes in a low-contrast photonic bandgap fiber and quasi-stationary TM modes of a two-dimensional (2D) photonic structure. Using this analogy, we numerically study the confinement losses of disordered microstructured fibers through the leakage rate of an open 2D system with high refractive index inclusions. Our results show that for large values of the disorder, the confinement losses increase. However, they also suggest that losses might be improved in strongly disordered fibers by exploring ranges of physical parame…
The efficiency of evanescent coupling between a silica optical fiber taper and a silicon photonic crystal waveguide is studied. A high reflectivity mirror on the end of the photonic crystal waveguide is used to recollect, in the backwards propagating fiber mode, the optical power that is initially coupled into the photonic crystal waveguide. An outcoupled power in the backward propagating fiber mode of 88% of the input power is measured, corresponding to a lower bound on the coupler efficiency of 94%.
Photonic crystal fibers represent one of the most active research fields in modern fiber optics. The recent advancements of topological photonics have inspired new fiber concepts and designs. Here, we demonstrate a new type of topological photonic crystal fibers based on second order photonic corner modes from the Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model. Different from previous works where the in-plane properties at $k_z=0$ have been mainly studied, we find that in the fiber configuration of $k_z>0$, a topological bandgap only exists when the propagation constant $k_z$ along the fiber axis is larger than a…
We present an experimental and theoretical study of the optical properties of metal-dielectric-metal structures with patterned top metallic surfaces, in the THz frequency range. When the thickness of the dielectric slab is very small with respect to the wavelength, these structures are able to support strongly localized electromagnetic modes, concentrated in the subwavelength metal-metal regions. We provide a detailed analysis of the physical mechanisms which give rise to these photonic modes. Furthermore, our model quantitatively predicts the resonance positions and their coupling to free spa…
A single-mode all-silica photonic crystal fiber with an effective area of 600 square-micron and low bending loss is demonstrated. The fiber is characterized in terms of attenuation, chromatic dispersion and modal properties.
We experimentally compare the optical bandwidth of a conventional single-mode fiber (SMF) with 3 different photonic crystal fibers (PCF) all optimized for visible applications. The spectral attenuation, single-turn bend loss, and mode-field diameters (MFD) are measured and the PCF is found to have a significantly larger bandwidth than the SMF for an identical MFD. It is shown how this advantage can be utilized for realizing a larger MFD for the PCF while maintaining a bending resistant fiber.
We report on a polarization maintaining large mode area photonic crystal fiber. Unlike, previous work on polarization maintaining photonic crystal fibers, birefringence is introduced using stress applying parts. This has allowed us to realize fibers, which are both single mode at any wavelength and have a practically constant birefringence for any wavelength. The fibers presented in this work have mode field diameters from about 4 to 6.5 micron, and exhibit a typical birefringence of 1.5e-4.
We report generation of broadband low divergent supercontinuum over the entire wavelength window of 1.5 to 3.5 μm from a 2.25 meter long effective single moded photonic bandgap fiber with mode area of 1100 μm2.
