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Applied Physics Letters

Low power optical bistability from quantum dots in a nanobeam photonic crystal cavity

Mustafa Atabey Buyukkaya, Chang-Min Lee, Ahmad Mansoori, Ganesh Balakrishnan, Edo Waks A

Published Aug 22, 2022• 10 citations
Publisher

Abstract

We demonstrate a low power thermally induced optical bistability at telecom wavelengths and room temperature using a nanobeam photonic crystal cavity embedded with an ensemble of quantum dots. The nanobeam photonic crystal cavity is transfer-printed onto the edge of a carrier chip for thermal isolation of the cavity with an efficient optical coupling between the nanobeam waveguide and optical setup. Reflectivity measurements performed with a tunable laser reveal the thermo-optic nature of the nonlinearity. A bistability power threshold as low as 23 μW and an on/off response contrast of 6.02 dB are achieved from a cavity with a moderately low quality factor of 2830. Our device provides optical bistability at power levels an order of magnitude lower than previous quantum-dot-based devices.

DOI
10.1063/5.0098003

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We demonstrate a low power thermally induced optical bistability at telecom wavelengths and room temperature using a nanobeam photonic crystal cavity embedded with an ensemble of quantum dots. The nanobeam photonic crystal cavity is transfer-printed onto the edge of a carrier chip for thermal isolation of the cavity with an efficient optical coupling between the nanobeam waveguide and optical setup. Reflectivity measurements performed with a tunable laser reveal the thermo-optic nature of the nonlinearity. A bistability power threshold as low as 23 μW and an on/off response contrast of 6.02 dB are achieved from a cavity with a moderately low quality factor of 2830. Our device provides optical bistability at power levels an order of magnitude lower than previous quantum-dot-based devices.
We demonstrate extremely low-power all-optical bistability by using photonic crystal linear resonators based on InGaAsP quantum-wells. Since the photonic crystal cavity has a high quality-factor and a small mode-volume, the photon density in the cavity is extremely high, which makes it possible to reduce the bistable power. The measured minimum bistable threshold power was 37 muW by using a fiber coupling technique, and the estimated nonlinear refractive index (n2) was -6.84times10-14m2/W at a wavelength of 1610.8 nm which is near the resonant wavelength of quantum-well. The low-power optical bistable operations in a single photonic crystal cavity open the possibility of integrated optical devices such as an all-optical memory and switch, based on photonic crystals
Optical bistability provides a simple way to control light with light. We demonstrate low-power thermo-optical bistability caused by the Joule heating mechanism in a one-dimensional photonic crystal (PC) nanobeam resonator with a moderate quality factor (Q ~8900) with an embedded reverse-biased pn-junction. We show that the photocurrent induced by the linear absorption in this compact resonator considerably reduces the threshold optical power. The proposed approach substantially relaxes the requirements on the input optical power for achieving optical bistability and provides a reliable way to stabilize the bistable features of the device.
The sub-wavelength optical confinement and low optical loss of nanophotonic devices dramatically enhances the interaction between light and matter within these structures. When nanophotonic devices are combined with an efficient optical coupling channel, nonlinear optical behavior can be observed at low power levels in weakly-nonlinear materials. In a similar vein, when resonant atomic systems interact with nanophotonic devices, atom-photon coupling effects can be observed at a single quanta level. Crucially, the chip based nature of nanophotonics provides a scalable platform from which to study these effects. This thesis addresses the use of nanophotonic devices in nonlinear and quantum optics, including device design, optical coupling, fabrication and testing, modeling, and integration with more complex systems. We present a fiber taper coupling technique that allows efficient power transfer from an optical fiber into a photonic crystal waveguide. Greater than 97% power transfer into a silicon photonic crystal waveguide is demonstrated. This optical channel is then connected to a high-Q (> 40,000), ultra-small mode volume (V 44% of the photons input to a fiber. This permits the observation of optical bistability in silicon for sub-mW input powers at telecommunication wavelengths. To port this technology to cavity QED experiments at near-visible wavelengths, we also study silicon nitride microdisk cavities at wavelengths near 852 nm, and observe resonances with Q > 3 million and V
An efficient single-photon nonlinearity is a key resource for photonic quantum technologies. Single-photon nonlinearities have been demonstrated with quantum dots (QDs) across a range of cavity and waveguide geometries. However, none of these realizations simultaneously provide high-efficiency direct fiber coupling and compatibility with scalable on-chip integration. The nanobeam cavity addresses these limitations through its in-plane geometry, which enables highly efficient, direct fiber coupling alongside scalable homogeneous and heterogeneous on-chip integration. Here, we report a single-photon nonlinearity from a nanobeam cavity coupled to a single quantum dot. The nanobeam interfaces directly with a single-mode fiber with an efficiency of 60%. Driven by resonant picosecond pulses, the platform achieves a single-photon nonlinearity with a low threshold of 0.24 incident photons per pulse. The system operates in the strong-coupling regime, exhibiting a coupling rate of g/2π = 29.1 GHz and a cooperativity of C = 3.98. These results establish the nanobeam cavity-QD system as a compact, chip-integrable, and fiber-compatible building block for scalable photonic quantum technologies.