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arXiv:1204.0837 · Physical Review Letters

Optical Diode Made from a Moving Photonic Crystal

Da‐Wei Wang, Haitao Zhou, Miao-Jun Guo, Junxiang Zhang, Jörg Evers, Shi‐Yao Zhu

Published Feb 25, 2013• 404 citations
arXivHTMLPDF

Abstract

Optical diodes controlling the flow of light are of principal significance for optical information processing. They transmit light from an input to an output, but not in the reverse direction. This breaking of time reversal symmetry is conventionally achieved via Faraday or nonlinear effects. For applications in a quantum network, features such as the abilities of all-optical control, on-chip integration, and single-photon operation are important. Here we propose an all-optical optical diode which requires neither magnetic fields nor strong input fields. It is based on a "moving" photonic crystal generated in a three-level electromagnetically induced transparency medium in which the refractive index of a weak probe is modulated by the moving periodic intensity of a strong standing coupling field with two detuned counterpropagating components. Because of the Doppler effect, the frequency range of the crystal's band gap for the probe copropagating with the moving crystal is shifted from that for the counterpropagating probe. This mechanism is experimentally demonstrated in a room temperature Cs vapor cell.

DOI
10.1103/physrevlett.110.093901

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Optical diodes controlling the flow of light are of principal significance for optical information processing. They transmit light from an input to an output, but not in the reverse direction. This breaking of time reversal symmetry is conventionally achieved via Faraday or nonlinear effects. For applications in a quantum network, features such as the abilities of all-optical control, on-chip integration, and single-photon operation are important. Here we propose an all-optical optical diode which requires neither magnetic fields nor strong input fields. It is based on a "moving" photonic crystal generated in a three-level electromagnetically induced transparency medium in which the refractive index of a weak probe is modulated by the moving periodic intensity of a strong standing coupling field with two detuned counterpropagating components. Because of the Doppler effect, the frequency range of the crystal's band gap for the probe copropagating with the moving crystal is shifted from that for the counterpropagating probe. This mechanism is experimentally demonstrated in a room temperature Cs vapor cell.
Controlling the optical response of a medium through suitably tuned coherent electromagnetic fields is highly relevant in a number of potential applications, from all-optical modulators to optical storage devices. In particular, electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is an established phenomenon in which destructive quantum interference creates a transparency window over a narrow spectral range around an absorption line, which, in turn, allows to slow and ultimately stop light due to the anomalous refractive index dispersion. Here we report on the observation of a new form of both induced transparency and amplification of a weak probe beam in a strongly driven silicon photonic crystal resonator at room temperature. The effect is based on the oscillating temperature field induced in a nonlinear optical cavity, and it reproduces many of the key features of EIT while being independent of either atomic or mechanical resonances. Such thermo-optically induced transparency will allow a versatile implementation of EIT-analogs in an integrated photonic platform, at almost arbitrary wavelength of interest, room temperature and in a practical, low cost, and scalable system.
A kind of photonic crystal structure with modulation of the refractive index is investigated both experimentally and theoretically for exploiting electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). The combination of EIT with periodically modulated refractive index medium gives rise to high efficiency reflection as well as forbidden transmission in a three-level atomic system coupled by standing wave. We show an accurate theoretical simulation via transfer-matrix theory, automatically accounting for multilayer reflections, thus fully demonstrate the existence of photonic crystal structure in atomic vapor.
A possible switching mechanism has been investigated for nonlinear photonic crystals doped with an ensemble of non-interacting three-level nanoparticles. In this scheme, an intense pump laser field is used to change the refractive index of the nonlinear photonic crystal while a weaker probe field monitors an absorption transition in the nanoparticles. In the absence of the strong laser field the system transmits the probe field when the resonance energy of the nanoparticles lies near the edge of the photonic band gap due to strong coupling between the photonic crystal and the nanoparticles. However, upon application of an intense pump laser field the system becomes absorbing due to a band edge frequency shift that arises due to a nonlinear Kerr effect which changes the refractive index of the crystal. It is anticipated that the optical switching mechanism described in this work can be used to make new types of photonic devices.
We illustrate a mechanism based on coherent optical nonlinearities to realize optically tunable photonic crystals built from media supporting electromagnetically induced transparency. These exhibit specific periodic patterns where a light probe can experience a fully developed photonic band-gap with negligible absorption. An analytical method based on a two-mode approximation is developed to study the optical response of such a periodically modulated medium driven into a regime of standing-wave electromagnetically induced transparency. A comparison with a transfer matrix approach and with techniques based on the coupled Maxwell–Liouville equations shows that our method is very accurate to describe the optical properties of such photonic metamaterials in the frequency region of interest. Nearly perfect reflectivities may be attained for ultracold 87Rb atoms samples which are seen to reflect with little loss and deformation light pulses whose frequency components are contained within the gap. When the same mechanism is implemented for inhomogeneously broadened optical transitions of nitrogen-vacancy centers in diamond, which is more amenable to device applications, fully developed photonic band-gap structures with negligible absorption, reflectivities very close to unity and sufficiently large bandwidths may also be attained. We further examine more flexible schemes based on four level systems under double driving conditions showing more accurate and efficient coherent optical control of the photonic band-gap. The remarkable experimental simplicity of the schemes that we presented is set to ease quantum nonlinear optics applications.
We demonstrate indirect photonic transitions in a silicon slow light photonic crystal waveguide. The transitions are driven by an optically generated refractive index front that moves along the waveguide and interacts with a signal pulse copropagating in the structure. We experimentally confirm a theoretical model which indicates that the ratio of the frequency and wave vector shifts associated with the indirect photonic transition is identical to the propagation velocity of the refractive index front. The physical origin of the transitions achieved here is fundamentally different than in previously proposed refractive index modulation concepts with fixed temporal and spatial modulation frequencies; as here, the interaction with the refractive index front results in a Doppler-like signal frequency and wave vector shift. Consequently, the bandwidth over which perfect mode frequency and wave vector matching is achieved is not intrinsically limited by the shape of the photonic bands, and tuning of the indirect photonic transitions is possible without any need for geometrical modifications of the structure. Our device is genuinely nonreciprocal, as it provides different frequency shifts for co- and counterpropagating signal and index fronts.
With two sets of standing-wave fields built in a thermal rubidium vapor cell, we have established a controllable photonic crystal with periodic gain in a coherently prepared N-type four-level atomic configuration. First, the photonic lattice constructed by a resonant standing-wave coupling field results in a spatially modulated susceptibility and makes the signal field diffract in a discrete manner under the condition of electromagnetically induced transparency. Then, with the addition of the standing-wave pump field, the N-type atomic medium can induce a periodic Raman gain on the signal field, which can be effectively controlled by tuning the pertinent atomic parameters. The experimental demonstration of such a real-time reconfigurable photonic crystal structure with periodic Raman gain can pave the way for realizing desired applications predicted in the gain-modulated periodic optical systems.