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arXiv:2401.09655 · npj Nanophotonics

Cavity-enhanced narrowband spectral filters using rare-earth ions doped in thin-film lithium niobate

Yuqi Zhao, Dylan L. Renaud, Demitry Farfurnik, Yuxi Jiang, Subhojit Dutta, Neil E. Sinclair, Marko Lončar, Edo Waks A

Published Jul 2, 2024• 14 citations

Abstract

Abstract On-chip optical filters are fundamental components in optical signal processing. While rare-earth ion-doped crystals offer ultra-narrow optical filtering via spectral hole burning, their applications have primarily been limited to those using bulk crystals, restricting their utility. In this work, we demonstrate cavity-enhanced spectral filtering based on rare-earth ions in an integrated nonlinear optical platform. We incorporate rare-earth ions into high quality-factor ring resonators patterned in thin-film lithium niobate. By spectral hole burning at 4 K in a critically coupled resonance mode, we achieve bandpass filters ranging from 7 MHz linewidth, with 13.0 dB of extinction, to 24 MHz linewidth, with 20.4 dB of extinction. By reducing the temperature to 100 mK to eliminate phonon broadening, we achieve an even narrower linewidth of 681 kHz, which is comparable to the narrowest filter linewidth demonstrated in an integrated photonic device, while only requiring a small device footprint. Moreover, the cavity enables reconfigurable filtering by varying the cavity coupling rate. For instance, as opposed to the bandpass filter, we demonstrate a bandstop filter utilizing an under-coupled ring resonator. Such versatile integrated spectral filters with high extinction ratio and narrow linewidth could serve as fundamental components for optical signal processing and optical memories on-a-chip.

DOI: 10.1038/s44310-024-00023-8

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Abstract On-chip optical filters are fundamental components in optical signal processing. While rare-earth ion-doped crystals offer ultra-narrow optical filtering via spectral hole burning, their applications have primarily been limited to those using bulk crystals, restricting their utility. In this work, we demonstrate cavity-enhanced spectral filtering based on rare-earth ions in an integrated nonlinear optical platform. We incorporate rare-earth ions into high quality-factor ring resonators patterned in thin-film lithium niobate. By spectral hole burning at 4 K in a critically coupled resonance mode, we achieve bandpass filters ranging from 7 MHz linewidth, with 13.0 dB of extinction, to 24 MHz linewidth, with 20.4 dB of extinction. By reducing the temperature to 100 mK to eliminate phonon broadening, we achieve an even narrower linewidth of 681 kHz, which is comparable to the narrowest filter linewidth demonstrated in an integrated photonic device, while only requiring a small device footprint. Moreover, the cavity enables reconfigurable filtering by varying the cavity coupling rate. For instance, as opposed to the bandpass filter, we demonstrate a bandstop filter utilizing an under-coupled ring resonator. Such versatile integrated spectral filters with high extinction ratio and narrow linewidth could serve as fundamental components for optical signal processing and optical memories on-a-chip.

Rare-earth ion ensembles doped in single crystals are a promising materials system with widespread applications in optical signal processing, lasing, and quantum information processing. Incorporating rare-earth ions into integrated photonic devices could enable compact lasers and modulators, as well as on-chip optical quantum memories for classical and quantum optical applications. To this end, a thin film single crystalline wafer structure that is compatible with planar fabrication of integrated photonic devices would be highly desirable. However, incorporating rare-earth ions into a thin film form-factor while preserving their optical properties has proven challenging. We demonstrate an integrated photonic platform for rare-earth ions doped in a single crystalline thin film lithium niobate on insulator. The thin film is composed of lithium niobate doped with Tm 3+ . The ions in the thin film exhibit optical lifetimes identical to those measured in bulk crystals. We show narrow spectral holes in a thin film waveguide that require up to 2 orders of magnitude lower power to generate than previously reported bulk waveguides. Our results pave the way for scalable on-chip lasers, optical signal processing devices, and integrated optical quantum memories.

As an active material with favorable linear and nonlinear optical properties, thin-film lithium niobate has demonstrated its potential in integrated photonics. Integration with rare-earth ions, which are promising candidates for quantum memories and transducers, will enrich the system with new applications in quantum information processing. Here, we investigate the optical properties at 1.5 μm wavelengths of rare-earth ions (Er3+) implanted in thin-film lithium niobate waveguides and micro-ring resonators. Optical quality factors near a million after post-annealing show that ion implantation damage can be repaired. The transition linewidth and fluorescence lifetime of erbium ions are characterized. The ion-cavity coupling is observed through a Purcell enhanced fluorescence from which a Purcell factor of 3.8 ± 0.5, compared with waveguide lifetime, is extracted. This platform is compatible with top-down lithography processes and leads to a scalable path for controlling spin-photon interfaces in photonic circuits.

Rare earth ions are known as promising candidates for building quantum light-matter interface. However, tunable photonic cavity access to rare earth ions in their desired host crystal remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate the integration of erbium doped yttrium orthosilicate (Er3+:Y2SiO5) with thin-film lithium niobate photonic circuit by plasma-activated direct flip chip bonding. Resonant coupling to erbium ions is realized by on-chip electro-optically tuned high Q lithium niobate micro-ring resonators. Fluorescence and absorption of erbium ions at 1536.48 nm are measured in the waveguides, while the collective ion-cavity cooperativity with micro-ring resonators is assessed to be 0.36. This work presents a versatile scheme for future rare earth ion integrated quantum devices.

Thin-film lithium niobate is a promising integrated nonlinear photonics platform due to its strong second- and third-order nonlinear response. However, these off-resonant nonlinear mechanisms typically require high input optical powers beyond the microwatt level. In this work, we achieve optical nonlinearity at picowatt input power by incorporating the strong resonant nonlinear absorption of rare-earth ions into high-quality-factor thin-film lithium niobate ring resonators. By precisely controlling the output coupling strength of the resonator, we demonstrate multiple nonlinear response behaviors including optical limiting and negative differential transmission, in which the output power decreases with increasing input power. These nonlinear responses are well described by a model of an ensemble of inhomogeneously broadened three-level atoms coupled to a cavity. We also demonstrate optical bistability and hysteresis of the device with a bistable lifetime of approximately 3 ms. This versatile low-power nonlinear device can serve as a fundamental building block for nonlinear thin-film lithium niobate photonic circuits.

Quantum memories are a key building block for optical quantum computers and quantum networks. Rare-earth ion-doped crystals are a promising material to achieve quantum memory using an atomic frequency comb protocol. However, current atomic frequency comb memories typically use bulk materials or waveguides with large cross sections or rely on fabrication techniques not easily adaptable to wafer scale processing. Here, we demonstrate a compact chip-integrated atomic frequency comb in rare-earth-doped thin-film lithium niobate. Our optical memory exhibits a broad storage bandwidth exceeding 100 MHz and optical storage time as long as 250 ns. The enhanced optical confinement in this device leads to three orders of magnitude reduction in optical power required for a coherent control as compared to ion-diffused waveguides. These compact atomic frequency comb memories pave the way toward scalable, highly efficient, electro-optically tunable quantum photonic systems that can store and manipulate light on a compact chip.