Reflection from a free carrier front via an intraband indirect photonic transition

The reflection of light from moving boundaries is of interest both fundamentally and for applications in frequency conversion, but typically requires high pump power. By using a dispersion-engineered silicon photonic crystal waveguide, we are able to achieve a propagating free carrier front with only a moderate on-chip peak power of 6 W in a 6 ps-long pump pulse. We employ an intraband indirect photonic transition of a co-propagating probe, whereby the probe practically escapes from the front in the forward direction. This forward reflection has up to 35% efficiency and it is accompanied by a strong frequency upshift, which significantly exceeds that expected from the refractive index change and which is a function of group velocity, waveguide dispersion and pump power. Pump, probe and shifted probe all are around 1.5 μm wavelength which opens new possibilities for "on-chip" frequency manipulation and all-optical switching in optical telecommunications

In situ spawning in a marine broadcast spawner, the Pacific oyster Crassostrea gigas : Timing and environmental triggers

The precise environmental conditions under which broadcast spawners spawn in the field remain largely unknown. We investigated this issue in the oyster Crassostrea gigas using three different methods at different time scales in two traditional oyster farming areas of the French Atlantic Coast, the Bay of Arcachon and Marennes-Oléron. We directly recorded spawning at high temporal resolution using high-frequency non-invasive (HFNI) valvometry from 2007–2014 and measured the dry mass and oyster larvae abundance in 2008 and 2009. We analyzed a 29-yr series of oyster D-larvae numbers in the Bay of Arcachon (1982–2010). By combining these three approaches, we demonstrated that during the summer months at both sites, spawning in C. gigas occurs in the morning or during the evening, essentially at high tide of perigean spring tides, independent of the positions of these oysters, above or below the lowest water level. We characterized the associated water currents at the spawning location in the Bay of Arcachon and observed that spawning systematically occurs during the early phase of a water current peak, at the beginning of ebbing. We propose that this water current peak acts as a final trigger for spawning. These results have ecological consequences associated with gamete encounters and the dispersal of fertilized eggs (zygotes)

Adiabatic elimination-based coupling control in densely packed subwavelength waveguides

The ability to control light propagation in photonic integrated circuits is at the foundation of modern light-based communication. However, the inherent crosstalk in densely packed waveguides and the lack of robust control of the coupling are a major roadblock toward ultra-high density photonic integrated circuits. As a result, the diffraction limit is often considered as the lower bound for ultra-dense silicon photonics circuits. Here we experimentally demonstrate an active control of the coupling between two closely packed waveguides via the interaction with a decoupled waveguide. This control scheme is analogous to the adiabatic elimination, a well-known procedure in atomic physics. This approach offers an attractive solution for ultra-dense integrated nanophotonics for light-based communications and integrated quantum computing