Fast bistable all-optical switch and memory on a silicon photonic crystal on-chip

We demonstrate extremely low-power all-optical bistability by utilizing silicon photonic crystal nanocavities, based on the plasma effect of carriers generated by two-photon absorption. Owing to the high quality factor and the small volume of the nanocavities, the photon density inside the cavity becomes extremely high, which leads to a large reduction in operation power. Optical bistable operation in a single nanocavity permits optical read-write memory operation, which opens the possibility of an integrated optical logic circuit on a single chip, based on photonic crystals. The demonstrated bistable threshold power is 0.4 mW with a set pulse energy of 74 fJ, at a switching speed of <100 ps.     

二维GaAs 基光子晶体微腔的制作与光谱特性分析

研究了以InAs量子点为有源区的二维GaAs基光子晶体微腔的设计与制作,测试并分析了室温下微腔的光谱特性.观察到了波长约为1137 nm,谱线半高宽度约为1 nm的尖锐低阶谐振模式发光峰.我们比较了不同刻蚀条件下光子晶体微腔的发光谱线,结果表明空气孔洞截面的垂直度是影响光子晶体微腔发光特性的重要因素之一.通过调节干法刻蚀工艺,改变空气孔半径与晶格常数的比率,可以在较大范围内调节谐振模式发光峰位置,达到谐振模式与量子点发光峰调谐的目的.     

Advances in quantum dots for classical and non-classical light sources Invited Paper

Recent advances in quantum dots (QDs) for classical and non-classical light sources are presented. We have established metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) technology for InAs-based QD lasers at 1.3 μm and achieved ultralow threshold in QD lasers with photonic crystal (PhC) nanocavity. In addition, single photon emitters at 1.55/μm, GaN-based single photon sources operating at 200 K, and high-Q PhC nanocavity have been demonstrated.     

Ultrafast optical switching in Kerr nonlinear photonic crystals

Nonlinear photonic crystals made from polystyrene materials that have Kerr nonlinearity can exhibit ultrafast optical switching when the samples are pumped by ultrashort optical pulses with high intensity due to the change of the refractive index of polystyrene and subsequent shift of the band gap edge or defect state resonant frequency. Polystyrene has a large Kerr nonlinear susceptibility and almost instantaneous response to pump light, making it suitable for the realization of ultrafast optical switching with a response time as short as a few femtoseconds. In this paper, we review our experimental progress on the continual improvement of all-optical switching speed in two-dimensional and three-dimensional polystyrene nonlinear photonic crystals in the past years. Several relevant issues are discussed and analyzed, including different mechanisms for all-optical switching, preparation of nonlinear photonic crystal samples by means of microfabrication and self-assembly techniques, characterization of optical switching performance by means of femtosecond pump-probe technique, and different ways to lower the pump power of optical switching to facilitate practical applications in optical information processing. Finally, a brief summary and a perspective of future work are provided.     

Ultrafast optical switching in Kerr nonlinear photonic crystals

Nonlinear photonic crystals made from polystyrene materials that have Kerr nonlinearity can exhibit ultrafast optical switching when the samples are pumped by ultrashort optical pulses with high intensity due to the change of the refractive index of polystyrene and subsequent shift of the band gap edge or defect state resonant frequency. Polystyrene has a large Kerr nonlinear susceptibility and almost instantaneous response to pump light, making it suitable for the realization of ultrafast optical switching with a response time as short as a few femtoseconds. In this paper, we review our experimental progress on the continual improvement of all-optical switching speed in two-dimensional and three-dimensional polystyrene nonlinear photonic crystals in the past years. Several relevant issues are discussed and analyzed, including different mechanisms for all-optical switching, preparation of nonlinear photonic crystal samples by means of microfabrication and self-assembly techniques, characterization of optical switching performance by means of femtosecond pump-probe technique, and different ways to lower the pump power of optical switching to facilitate practical applications in optical information processing. Finally, a brief summary and a perspective of future work are provided.     

Diffractionless optical networking in an inverse opal photonic band gap micro-chip

We present a design for a photonic crystal (PC) all-optical micro-chip based on a three-dimensional (3D) inverse opal heterostructure intercalated with a two-dimensional (2D) triangular lattice photonic crystal slab. Within the 2D micro-chip layer, we demonstrate single-mode (diffractionless) waveguiding of light in air, throughout a bandwidth of more than 70 nm near 1.55 μm. This suggests that inverse opal photonic band gap (PBG) materials can facilitate on-chip optical networking functions over the telecommunication frequency band used in current-day optical fibers.     

Double-state controllable optical switching through three tunnel-coupled quantum dots inside waveguide coupled photonic crystal microcavity

We study optical transmission properties of a combined system which is composed of a photonic crystal (PC) microcavity with low quality factor Q, a triple quantum dot (QD) embedded in cavity and two parallel waveguides. We demonstrate that low coupling strength (i.e., the weak coupling regime) between a cavity and a dot, by means of electron tunnel-induced coupling, can lead to a type of double-state controllable optical switching under the experimentally available parameter conditions.     

Ultrahigh-contrast and wideband nanoscale photonic crystal all-optical diode

We experimentally realize a nanoscale all-optical diode in a photonic crystal heterostructure with broken spatial inversion symmetry, performing independent of optical nonlinearity. The physical mechanism lies in unique dispersion relations of the photonic crystal and the transition of incident light between different electromagnetic Bloch modes. An ultrahigh transmission contrast of 10(3) order, a large operating bandwidth of over 50 nm, and an ultralow photon intensity of less than 10 kW/cm(2) are reached simultaneously.     

Photonic resonant transmission in the quantum-well structure of photonic crystals

A photonic quantum-well is constructed by sandwiching a uniform medium between two photonic barriers due to the photonic band gap mismatch, similar to electronic quantum well. The transmission coefficient is calculated by a plane-wave expansion method in combination with multiple-scattering techniques. The transmission peaks indicate that some photonic states exist in a quantized way, satisfying a quantized frequency relation. We also show that the finite photonic potential barrier plays different confined roles on the different photonic levels. The positions and number of the resonant peaks can be artificially tuned by varying the well width. By appropriately choosing the parameters of the well and barrier, a high-quality multichannel filtering can be achieved.     

A mid-infrared tunable filter in a semiconductor-dielectric photonic crystal containing doped semiconductor defect

In this work, we theoretically analyze tunable filtering properties in a semiconductor-dielectric photonic crystal (SDPC) containing doped semiconductor defect in the mid-infrared frequency region. We consider two possible configurations of filter structures, the symmetric and asymmetric ones. With a defect of the doped n-type semiconductor, n-Si, the resonant transmission peak can be tuned by varying the doping concentration, that is, the peak wavelength will be shifted to the position of lower wavelength for both structures. Additionally, by increasing the defect thickness, it is also possible to have a filter with multiple resonant peaks, leading to a multichannel filter. The results provide another type of tunable filter in the defective SDPC that could be of technical use for semiconductor applications in optical electronics.     

Adiabatic coupling between conventional dielectric waveguides and waveguides with discrete translational symmetry

We study adiabatic transformation in optical waveguides with discrete translational symmetry. We calculate the reflection and transmission coefficient for a structure consisting of a slab waveguide that is adiabatically transformed into a photonic crystal waveguide and then back into a slab waveguide. The calculation yields high transmission over a wide frequency range of the photonic crystal waveguide band and indicates efficient coupling between the slab waveguide and the photonic crystal waveguide. Other applications of adiabatic mode transformation in photonic crystal waveguides and the coupled-resonator optical waveguides are also discussed.     

Ultrafast photonic crystal lasers

We describe recent progress in photonic crystal nanocavity lasers with an emphasis on our recent results on ultrafast pulse generation. These lasers produce pulses on the picosecond scale, corresponding to only hundreds of optical cycles. We describe laser dynamics in optically pumped single cavities and in coupled cavity arrays, at low and room temperature. Such ultrafast, efficient, and compact lasers show great promise for applications in high‐speed communications, information processing, and on‐chip optical interconnects.     

Tunable multichannel filter in photonic crystal heterostructure containing permeability-negative materials

A tunable multichannel filter is demonstrated theoretically based on a one-dimensional photonic crystal heterostructure containing permeability-negative material. The filtering properties of the photonic crystal filter, including the channel number and frequency, can be tuned by adjusting the structure parameters or by a pump laser. The angular response of the photonic crystal filter and the influences of the losses on the filtering properties are also analyzed.     

Nonlinear performance in silicon nitride slow light photonic crystal waveguides with elliptical holes

We propose a slow-light photonic crystal waveguide, which uses a combination of circular and elliptical air holes arranged in a hexagonal lattice with the background material of silicon nitride (refractive index n = 2.06). Large value of normalized delay bandwidth product (NDBP = 0.3708) is obtained. We have analyzed nonlinear performance of the structure. With our proposed geometry strong SPM is observed at moderate peak power levels. Proposed photonic crystal waveguide has slow light applications such as reduction in length and power consumption of all-optical and electro-optic switches at optical frequency.     

High-efficiency reflection-type all-optical switch for ultrashort pulses based on a single asymmetrically confined photonic crystal defect

We propose a reflection-type all-optical switch for ultrashort pulses based on a single asymmetrically confined photonic crystal (PC) defect. By changing the absorption of the defect rather than its refractive index, we obtain modulation of reflectivity with a large extinction ratio. In addition, the control light can be strongly localized in the defect region and completely absorbed by optimization of the absorption of the defect. More importantly, the significant broadening of the defect mode ensures perfect reflection of ultrashort pulses. Finite-difference time-domain simulation of the switching operation of a three-dimensional PC structure for a 500-fs optical pulse is performed. Switching energy of a few femtojoules is achieved.     

光子晶体多通道可调谐滤波器的理论研究

为了实现光子晶体的多通道滤波,对设计出的一维掺杂光子晶体进行了数值计算和理论分析。结果表明：多通道透射峰的波长与空气膜厚度呈线性变化,不同厚度的空气膜可以截到数目不同的透射峰,多通道透射峰的半高宽随光子晶体折射率n₂的增加而减小。以此为基础,设计出滤波通道波长的可调范围达60nm,滤波通道半高宽的可调范围为1nm～5nm,滤波通道透射峰值大于0.98的一维光子晶体三通道可调谐滤波器。     

Edge-emitting photonic crystal double-heterostructure nanocavity lasers with InAs quantum dot active material

We report what is, to the best of our knowledge, the first demonstration of an edge-emitting photonic crystal nanocavity laser that is integrated with a photonic crystal waveguide. This demonstration is achieved with a double-heterostructure photonic crystal nanocavity incorporating an InAs quantum dot active region.     

Differential group delay monitoring using an all-optical signal spectrum-analyser

We demonstrate an all-optical device that monitors differential group delay (DGD) degradation of picosecond optical pulses. This device is based on an ultrafast all-optical signal analyser that uses nonlinear effects (cross-phase modulation) to transfer rapid temporal fluctuations into frequency domain effects that can be measured on an conventional optical spectrum analyser (incorporating a slow-detector). This monitoring scheme will enable rapid dynamic monitoring and compensation of DGD in ultrafast optical networks, at 160 Gb/s data rates and beyond, where electronic monitoring techniques cannot operate. We discuss the required signal polarisation condition.     

Nano-optic label-free biosensors based on photonic crystal platform with negative refraction

In this paper, a novel biosensor based on hetero photonic crystal (PC) structures is proposed. The biosensor consists of photonic crystals with negative refraction (PCNR) embedded between two ordinary PC structures. The PCNR is employed in order to produce an image that is as similar as the light source, which is located in the first ordinary PC. Significant enhancement of the image is achieved when a nanocavity is introduced into the PCNR. It is found that the transmission peak shifts when the nanocavity is filled with blood plasma, liquid and dry air. It is shown that by careful selection of the radius of the nanocavity, the sensitivity of the proposed biosensor can be enhanced. The presented PCNR biosensor is investigated by employing the finite-difference time-domain method (FDTD).     

Application of fast Pade approximation in simulating photonic crystal nanocavities by FDTD technology

The exact calculation of mode quality factor Q is a key problem in the design of high-Q photonic crystal nanocavity. On the basis of further investigation on conventional Pade approximation, FDM and DFT, Pade approximation with Baker’s algorithm is enhanced through introducing multiple frequency search and parabola interpolation. Though Pade approximation is a nonlinear signal processing method and only short time sequence is needed, we find the different length of sequence requirements for 2D and 3D FDTD, which is very important to obtain convergent and accurate results. By using the modified Pade approximation method and 3D FDTD, the 2D slab photonic crystal nanocavity is analyzed and high-Q multimode can be solved quickly instead of large range high-resolution scanning. Monitor position has also been investigated. These results are very helpful to the design of photonic crystal nanocavity devices.