Integrated nano-opto-electro-mechanical sensor for spectrometry and nanometrology

Spectrometry is widely used for the characterization of materials, tissues, and gases, and the need for size and cost scaling is driving the development of mini and microspectrometers. While nanophotonic devices provide narrowband filtering that can be used for spectrometry, their practical application has been hampered by the difficulty of integrating tuning and read-out structures. Here, a nano-opto-electro-mechanical system is presented where the three functionalities of transduction, actuation, and detection are integrated, resulting in a high-resolution spectrometer with a micrometer-scale footprint. The system consists of an electromechanically tunable double-membrane photonic crystal cavity with an integrated quantum dot photodiode. Using this structure, we demonstrate a resonance modulation spectroscopy technique that provides subpicometer wavelength resolution. We show its application in the measurement of narrow gas absorption lines and in the interrogation of fiber Bragg gratings. We also explore its operation as displacement-to-photocurrent transducer, demonstrating optomechanical displacement sensing with integrated photocurrent read-out

Multiple modes of a photonic crystal cavity on a fiber tip for multiple parameter sensing

Measuring resonant wavelengths of different modes of a luminescent semiconductor photonic crystal cavity placed on the tip of an optical fiber is proposed and demonstrated for simultaneous measurement of multiple parameters, and is applied to the measurement of temperature and refractive index in the temperature range of 77-370 K. The operation principle is supported by the finite-element method simulations. The robustness of a simple mounting scheme without adhesives is proven experimentally. The simplicity, extremely small size, and high sensitivity to both refractive index and temperature makes this concept an ideal fiber-optic sensor for a multitude of applications

Nanomechanical control of optical field and quality factor in photonic crystal structures

\u3cp\u3eActively controlling the properties of localized optical modes is crucial for cavity quantum electrodynamics experiments. While several methods to tune the optical frequency have been demonstrated, the possibility of controlling the shape of the modes has scarcely been investigated. Yet an active manipulation of the mode pattern would allow direct control of the mode volume and the quality factor and therefore of the radiative processes. In this work, we propose and demonstrate a nano-optoelectromechanical device in which a mechanical displacement affects the spatial pattern of the electromagnetic field. The device is based on a double-membrane photonic crystal waveguide which, upon bending, creates a spatial modulation of the effective refractive index, resulting in an effective potential well or antiwell for the optical modes. The change in the field pattern drastically affects the optical losses: large modulations of the quality factors and dissipative coupling rates larger than 1 GHz/nm are predicted by calculations and confirmed by experiments. This concept opens new avenues in solid-state cavity quantum electrodynamics in which the field, instead of the frequency, is coupled to the mechanical motion.\u3c/p\u3

Integrated optomechanical displacement sensor based on a photonic crystal cavity

Displacement sensing at the nanoscale is required in many applications, including accelerometry, mass sensing and atomic force microscopy. Miniaturization of the sensing elements and integration of the read-out is key in achieving low cost, high resolution and high speed. Here, we present a novel integrated nano-opto-electro-mechanical device which potentially has subnanometer resolution for displacement sensing. The proposed device is a waveguide-coupled, micron-sized, double membrane photonic crystal cavity with integrated electro-optical read-out on a single chip

Tuneable quantum light from a photonic crystal LED

Summary form only given. Pure and deterministic single-photon sources, obtained by coupling a semiconductor quantum dot (QD) to a photonic crystal (PhC) cavity, constitute a key component for quantum photonic integrated circuits (QPICs) [1]. These sources are commonly excited by a laser pump, which involves some practical limitations in scaling the number of integrated cavity-emitter nodes and is hardly compatible with on-chip single-photon detectors. Here, we present the first demonstration of electrical injection of single dot lines coupled to photonic crystal modes. The latter can be electrically re-configured to bring multiple cavity-emitters into energy resonance

Electrically driven quantum light emission in electromechanically tuneable photonic crystal cavities

\u3cp\u3eA single quantum dot deterministically coupled to a photonic crystal environment constitutes an indispensable elementary unit to both generate and manipulate single-photons in next-generation quantum photonic circuits. To date, the scaling of the number of these quantum nodes on a fully integrated chip has been prevented by the use of optical pumping strategies that require a bulky off-chip laser along with the lack of methods to control the energies of nano-cavities and emitters. Here, we concurrently overcome these limitations by demonstrating electrical injection of single excitonic lines within a nano-electro-mechanically tuneable photonic crystal cavity. When an electrically driven dot line is brought into resonance with a photonic crystal mode, its emission rate is enhanced. Anti-bunching experiments reveal the quantum nature of these on-demand sources emitting in the telecom range. These results represent an important step forward in the realization of integrated quantum optics experiments featuring multiple electrically triggered Purcell-enhanced single-photon sources embedded in a reconfigurable semiconductor architecture.\u3c/p\u3

Integrated optomechanical displacement sensor based on a photonic crystal cavity

\u3cp\u3eDisplacement sensing at the nanoscale is required in many applications, including accelerometry, mass sensing and atomic force microscopy. Miniaturization of the sensing elements and integration of the read-out is key in achieving low cost, high resolution and high speed. Here, we present a novel integrated nano-opto-electro-mechanical device which potentially has subnanometer resolution for displacement sensing. The proposed device is a waveguide-coupled, micron-sized, double membrane photonic crystal cavity with integrated electro-optical read-out on a single chip.\u3c/p\u3