172 research outputs found
Electro-optically tunable microring resonators in lithium niobate
Optical microresonators have recently attracted a growing attention in the
photonics community. Their applications range from quantum electro-dynamics to
sensors and filtering devices for optical telecommunication systems, where they
are likely to become an essential building block. The integration of nonlinear
and electro-optical properties in the resonators represents a very stimulating
challenge, as it would incorporate new and more advanced functionality. Lithium
niobate is an excellent candidate material, being an established choice for
electro-optic and nonlinear optical applications. Here we report on the first
realization of optical microring resonators in submicrometric thin films of
lithium niobate. The high index contrast films are produced by an improved
crystal ion slicing and bonding technique using benzocyclobutene. The rings
have radius R=100 um and their transmission spectrum has been tuned using the
electro-optic effect. These results open new perspectives for the use of
lithium niobate in chip-scale integrated optical devices and nonlinear optical
microcavities.Comment: 15 pages, 8 figure
Strong Interactions of Single Atoms and Photons near a Dielectric Boundary
Modern research in optical physics has achieved quantum control of strong
interactions between a single atom and one photon within the setting of cavity
quantum electrodynamics (cQED). However, to move beyond current
proof-of-principle experiments involving one or two conventional optical
cavities to more complex scalable systems that employ N >> 1 microscopic
resonators requires the localization of individual atoms on distance scales <
100 nm from a resonator's surface. In this regime an atom can be strongly
coupled to a single intracavity photon while at the same time experiencing
significant radiative interactions with the dielectric boundaries of the
resonator. Here, we report an initial step into this new regime of cQED by way
of real-time detection and high-bandwidth feedback to select and monitor single
Cesium atoms localized ~100 nm from the surface of a micro-toroidal optical
resonator. We employ strong radiative interactions of atom and cavity field to
probe atomic motion through the evanescent field of the resonator. Direct
temporal and spectral measurements reveal both the significant role of
Casimir-Polder attraction and the manifestly quantum nature of the atom-cavity
dynamics. Our work sets the stage for trapping atoms near micro- and
nano-scopic optical resonators for applications in quantum information science,
including the creation of scalable quantum networks composed of many
atom-cavity systems that coherently interact via coherent exchanges of single
photons.Comment: 8 pages, 5 figures, Supplemental Information included as ancillary
fil
Fast Purcell-enhanced single photon source in 1,550-nm telecom band from a resonant quantum dot-cavity coupling
High-bit-rate nanocavity-based single photon sources in the 1,550-nm telecom
band are challenges facing the development of fibre-based long-haul quantum
communication networks. Here we report a very fast single photon source in the
1,550-nm telecom band, which is achieved by a large Purcell enhancement that
results from the coupling of a single InAs quantum dot and an InP photonic
crystal nanocavity. At a resonance, the spontaneous emission rate was enhanced
by a factor of 5 resulting a record fast emission lifetime of 0.2 ns at 1,550
nm. We also demonstrate that this emission exhibits an enhanced anti-bunching
dip. This is the first realization of nanocavity-enhanced single photon
emitters in the 1,550-nm telecom band. This coupled quantum dot cavity system
in the telecom band thus provides a bright high-bit-rate non-classical single
photon source that offers appealing novel opportunities for the development of
a long-haul quantum telecommunication system via optical fibres.Comment: 16 pages, 4 figure
Liquid-infiltrated photonic crystals - enhanced light-matter interactions for lab-on-a-chip applications
Optical techniques are finding widespread use in analytical chemistry for
chemical and bio-chemical analysis. During the past decade, there has been an
increasing emphasis on miniaturization of chemical analysis systems and
naturally this has stimulated a large effort in integrating microfluidics and
optics in lab-on-a-chip microsystems. This development is partly defining the
emerging field of optofluidics. Scaling analysis and experiments have
demonstrated the advantage of micro-scale devices over their macroscopic
counterparts for a number of chemical applications. However, from an optical
point of view, miniaturized devices suffer dramatically from the reduced
optical path compared to macroscale experiments, e.g. in a cuvette. Obviously,
the reduced optical path complicates the application of optical techniques in
lab-on-a-chip systems. In this paper we theoretically discuss how a strongly
dispersive photonic crystal environment may be used to enhance the light-matter
interactions, thus potentially compensating for the reduced optical path in
lab-on-a-chip systems. Combining electromagnetic perturbation theory with
full-wave electromagnetic simulations we address the prospects for achieving
slow-light enhancement of Beer-Lambert-Bouguer absorption, photonic band-gap
based refractometry, and high-Q cavity sensing.Comment: Invited paper accepted for the "Optofluidics" special issue to appear
in Microfluidics and Nanofluidics (ed. Prof. David Erickson). 11 pages
including 8 figure
Towards quantum computing with single atoms and optical cavities on atom chips
We report on recent developments in the integration of optical
microresonators into atom chips and describe some fabrication and
implementation challenges. We also review theoretical proposals for quantum
computing with single atoms based on the observation of photons leaking through
the cavity mirrors. The use of measurements to generate entanglement can result
in simpler, more robust and scalable quantum computing architectures. Indeed,
we show that quantum computing with atom-cavity systems is feasible even in the
presence of relatively large spontaneous decay rates and finite photon detector
efficiencies.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figure
The Quantum Internet
Quantum networks offer a unifying set of opportunities and challenges across
exciting intellectual and technical frontiers, including for quantum
computation, communication, and metrology. The realization of quantum networks
composed of many nodes and channels requires new scientific capabilities for
the generation and characterization of quantum coherence and entanglement.
Fundamental to this endeavor are quantum interconnects that convert quantum
states from one physical system to those of another in a reversible fashion.
Such quantum connectivity for networks can be achieved by optical interactions
of single photons and atoms, thereby enabling entanglement distribution and
quantum teleportation between nodes.Comment: 15 pages, 6 figures Higher resolution versions of the figures can be
downloaded from the following link:
http://www.its.caltech.edu/~hjkimble/QNet-figures-high-resolutio
Single Mode Lasing from Hybrid Hemispherical Microresonators
Enormous attention has been paid to optical microresonators which hold a great promise for microlasers as well as fundamental studies in cavity quantum electrodynamics. Here we demonstrate a three-dimensional (3D) hybrid microresonator combining self-assembled hemispherical structure with a planar reflector. By incorporating dye molecules into the hemisphere, optically pumped lasing phenomenon is observed at room temperature. We have studied the lasing behaviors with different cavity sizes, and particularly single longitudinal mode lasing from hemispheres with diameter ∼15 μm is achieved. Detailed characterizations indicate that the lasing modes shift under varying pump densities, which can be well-explained by frequency shift and mode hopping. This work provides a versatile approach for 3D confined microresonators and opens an opportunity to realize tunable single mode microlasers
Stimulated optomechanical excitation of surface acoustic waves in a microdevice
Stimulated Brillouin interaction between sound and light, known to be the
strongest optical nonlinearity common to all amorphous and crystalline
dielectrics, has been widely studied in fibers and bulk materials but rarely in
optical microresonators. The possibility of experimentally extending this
principle to excite mechanical resonances in photonic microsystems, for sensing
and frequency reference applications, has remained largely unexplored. The
challenge lies in the fact that microresonators inherently have large free
spectral range, while the phase matching considerations for the Brillouin
process require optical modes of nearby frequencies but with different
wavevectors. We rely on high-order transverse optical modes to relax this
limitation. Here we report on the experimental excitation of mechanical
resonances ranging from 49 to 1400 MHz by using forward Brillouin scattering.
These natural mechanical resonances are excited in ~100 um silica microspheres,
and are of a surface-acoustic whispering-gallery type
Plasmofluidic Disk Resonators
Waveguide-coupled silicon ring or disk resonators have been used for optical signal processing and sensing. Large-scale integration of optical devices demands continuous reduction in their footprints, and ultimately they need to be replaced by silicon-based plasmonic resonators. However, few waveguide-coupled silicon-based plasmonic resonators have been realized until now. Moreover, fluid cannot interact effectively with them since their resonance modes are strongly confined in solid regions. To solve this problem, this paper reports realized plasmofluidic disk resonators (PDRs). The PDR consists of a submicrometer radius silicon disk and metal laterally surrounding the disk with a 30-nm-wide channel in between. The channel is filled with fluid, and the resonance mode of the PDR is strongly confined in the fluid. The PDR coupled to a metal-insulator-silicon-insulator-metal waveguide is implemented by using standard complementary metal oxide semiconductor technology. If the refractive index of the fluid increases by 0.141, the transmission spectrum of the waveguide coupled to the PDR of radius 0.9 mu m red-shifts by 30 nm. The PDR can be used as a refractive index sensor requiring a very small amount of analyte. Plus, the PDR filled with liquid crystal may be an ultracompact intensity modulator which is effectively controlled by small driving voltageopen
Laser oscillation in a strongly coupled single quantum dot-nanocavity system
Strong coupling of photons and materials in semiconductor nanocavity systems
has been investigated because of its potentials in quantum information
processing and related applications, and has been testbeds for cavity quantum
electrodynamics (QED). Interesting phenomena such as coherent exchange of a
single quantum between a single quantum dot and an optical cavity, called
vacuum Rabi oscillation, and highly efficient cavity QED lasers have been
reported thus far. The coexistence of vacuum Rabi oscillation and laser
oscillation appears to be contradictory in nature, because the fragile
reversible process may not survive in laser oscillation. However, recently, it
has been theoretically predicted that the strong-coupling effect could be
sustained in laser oscillation in properly designed semiconductor systems.
Nevertheless, the experimental realization of this phenomenon has remained
difficult since the first demonstration of the strong-coupling, because an
extremely high cavity quality factor and strong light-matter coupling are both
required for this purpose. Here, we demonstrate the onset of laser oscillation
in the strong-coupling regime in a single quantum dot (SQD)-cavity system. A
high-quality semiconductor optical nanocavity and strong SQD-field coupling
enabled to the onset of lasing while maintaining the fragile coherent exchange
of quanta between the SQD and the cavity. In addition to the interesting
physical features, this device is seen as a prototype of an ultimate solid
state light source with an SQD gain, which operates at ultra-low power, with
expected applications in future nanophotonic integrated systems and monolithic
quantum information devices.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figure
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