Eigenmode Splitting in all Hydrogenated Amorphous Silicon Nitride Coupled Microcavity

Hydrogenated amorphous silicon nitride based coupled optical microcavity is investigated theoretically and ex- perimentally. The theoretical calculation of the transmittance spectra of optical microcavity with one cavity and coupled microcavity with two-cavity is performed. The optical eigenmode splitting for coupled microcavity is found due to the interaction between the neighbouring localized cavities. Experimentally, the coupled cavity samples are prepared by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition and characterized by photoluminescence measurements. It is found that the photoluminescence peak wavelength agrees well with the cavity mode in the calculated transmittance spectra. This eigenmode splitting is analogous to the electron state energy splitting in diatom molecules.     

Giant third-harmonic in porous silicon photonic crystals and microcavities

A giant enhancement (no less than by 10³) of the optical third-harmonic generation in one-dimensional porous silicon microcavities and photonic crystals was observed experimentally. The enhancement is due to the resonant enhancement of the fundamental field in the cavity mode and the fulfillment of the phase matching condition at the photonic band gap edges of the photonic crystal and in the vicinity of the microcavity mode.     

Beam focusing upon the reflection from crystals and multilayer periodic structures with variable period

The experimental spectral dependence of the intensity of the second harmonic (SH) generated in microcavities based on porous silicon photonic crystal demonstrates resonant intensity enhancement (by a factor of ～2×10²) in the vicinity of the cavity mode and at the edges of the photonic band gap. The enhancement is due to the combined effect of pump radiation localization inside the microcavity, multiple SH interference in the photonic crystal, and two-photon resonance of the porous silicon quadratic susceptibility at the SH frequency.     

Simultaneous broadening and enhancement of the 1.5 μm photoluminescence peak of Er3+ ions embedded in a 1-D photonic crystal microcavity

It is proposed for the first time that the 1.5 μm Er³⁺ photoluminescence peak may be significantly broadened by a photonic crystal microcavity structure. Two coupled microcavities have been designed and prepared by sol-gel processing based on alternating layers of silicate glass and titania materials. The 1.5 μm emission spectra of the Er³⁺ ions embedded in these microcavity structures are measured and discussed. It is found that the spontaneous emission spectra are effectively broadened to a point where they become approximately square in shape. The full width at half maximum (FWHM) reached a value as large as 183 nm, which is the best result reported so far. The measured photoluminescence profiles agree well with simulated curves and an intensity enhancement by the microcavities has also been observed. These results may be of significance for applications requiring broadened or otherwise modified spontaneous emission spectra, such as application-specific LEDs and other non-coherent light sources. The present technique can easily be applied to other active materials.     

Isotropic photonic bandgap in Penrose textured metallic mircocavity

Photonic microcavity has modified photonic modes that have intense localized electric field, which can couple strongly with the embedded emission centers. In this work, we fabricated 2D photonic microcavities with Penrose quasicrystal pattern with 10-fold symmetry. Organic luminescence material tris(8-hydroxyquinoline) aluminum (Alq₃) was embedded into the microcavity and the angle resolved transmission (ART) and photoluminescence (ARPL) spectra of the microcavity were measured. The results showed that the normal Gaussian photoluminescence spectrum of Alq₃ has been strongly modified by the microcavity dispersion characteristic. In addition, omni-directional photonic band gap exists in the microcavity. The higher symmetry of Penrose quasicrystal pattern means that there was minimal difference in the directional dispersion characteristics.     

Spontaneous two-photon emission from a single quantum dot

Spontaneous two-photon emission from a solid-state single quantum emitter is observed. We investigated photoluminescence from the neutral biexciton in a single semiconductor quantum dot coupled with a high Q photonic crystal nanocavity. When the cavity is resonant to the half energy of the biexciton, the strong vacuum field in the cavity inspires the biexciton to simultaneously emit two photons into the mode, resulting in clear emission enhancement of the mode. Meanwhile, the suppression of other single photon emission from the biexciton was observed, as the two-photon emission process becomes faster than the others at the resonance.     

Enhancing fluorescence detection with a photonic crystal structure in a total-internal-reflection configuration

In contrast to fluorescence enhancement of fluorophores embedded in a photonic crystal structure as previously reported [Appl. Phys. Lett. 75, 3605 (1999)], in this Letter we demonstrate a unique approach to forming an open microcavity using a one-dimensional photonic crystal in a total-internal-reflection geometry. This configuration opens up the possibility for enhancing fluorescence imaging and biosensing. Time-resolved fluorescence detection of fluorophores immobilized on the open cavity has been carried out. Over 20-fold fluorescence enhancement was observed.     

Simultaneous near field imaging of electric and magnetic field in photonic crystal nanocavities

The insertion of a metal-coated tip on the surface of a photonic crystal microcavity is used for simultaneous near field imaging of electric and magnetic fields in photonic crystal nanocavities, via the radiative emission of embedded semiconductor quantum dots (QD). The photoluminescence intensity map directly gives the electric field distribution, to which the electric dipole of the QD is coupled. The magnetic field generates, via Faraday's law, a circular current in the apex of the metallized probe that can be schematized as a ring. The resulting magnetic perturbation of the photonic modes induces a blue shift, which can be used to map the magnetic field, within a single near-field scan.     

Enhancement of Optical Second Harmonic Generation in Hybrid Plasmonic–Photonic Microcavities

A one-dimensional combined plasmonic–photonic system tailored for the enhancement of nonlinear optical effects is proposed and implemented. In this structure, a layer of silver plasmonic nanoparticles is placed in the cavity region of a photonic-crystal microcavity made of porous silicon. A multifold increase in an optical second harmonic generation signal in comparison to the structure without plasmonic nanoparticles is demonstrated.     

Optical characteristics of one-dimensional photonic crystals composed of high-aspect-ratio Si walls fabricated on V-grooved wafer

We demonstrate optical properties of one-dimensional photonic crystals (PC), which are fabricated using high-aspect-ratio etching on a V-grooved silicon wafer. The measured transmission spectrum has an obvious band gap; the suppression is over 30 dB. The quite small insertion loss of 1.9 dB is achieved by induced coupled plasma (ICP) cryogenic etching and direct coupling to the optical fiber aligned in the V-groove. We also successfully observed peaks originating from a localized cavity mode. Such a microcavity enables control of the light, which qualifies photonic crystal as a fundamental structure of optical functional devices. These results lead to achievement of integrated Si-based photonic circuits.     

优化电激励光子晶体单缺陷激光腔结构

设计和制作电激励光子晶体微腔激光器的一个困难是电流的注入问题,而且电流的路径时常会导致微腔的Q值降低。将三维并行时域有限差分方法用于电激励光子晶体单缺陷激光腔研究,给出了微腔的本征模式分布。根据模式特点,选择单极子模式作为研究对象。数值模拟表明,在保持C_(6v)对称性条件前提下,微调最靠近微腔中心的6个空气孔的位置使得单极子模式的光场分布在腔边缘发生缓慢变化可以将单极子模的Q值和Purcell因子提高大约7倍。即激光器阈值可以降低7倍。     

Modified Spontaneous Emission from Dye Molecules inside a Photonic Crystal Microcavity

We fabricate a photonic crystal microcavity containing Alq3 in a sandwiched structure by the self-assemble method. The angle-dependent photoluminescence （PL） spectra and the variation of the PL lifetime demonstrate the effect of the photonic band gap on the spontaneous emission of Alq3 in the photonic crystals.     

含各向异性左手材料一维光子晶体微腔的Wannier-Stark态

通过传输矩阵方法,研究了含各向异性左手材料的一维光子晶体耦合微腔结构。结果表明,该结构中存在两类微带,一类位于常规的Bragg带隙,另一类位于零均值折射率带隙。当腔的厚度发生调制时,两类微带变成两类Wannier-Stark态。耦合微腔厚度梯度因子增大时,两类带隙中Bragg振荡周期都减小,而且透过率降低。     

Strong exciton-photon coupling in an organic single crystal microcavity

We demonstrate strong exciton-photon coupling of Frenkel excitons at room temperature in a microcavity composed of a melt grown thin film anthracene single crystal and two distributed Bragg reflectors. Angle-resolved reflectivity and normal incidence photoluminescence under weak excitation are observed. The microcavity spectrum is a function of the anisotropy of the crystalline material and the strong exciton-photon coupling of the excitonic resonances to the cavity photon. The photoluminescence spectrum is found to be completely polarized along the crystal axes.     

Solution processed microcavity structures with embedded quantum dots

The authors report the fabrication of a one-dimensional microcavity structure embedded with colloidal CdSe/ZnS core/shell quantum dots using solution processing. The microcavity structures were fabricated by spin coating alternating layers of polymers of different refractive indices (poly-vinylcarbazole—PVK, and poly-acrylic acid—PAA) to form the distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). Greater than 90% reflectivity was obtained using ten periods of the structure. The one-dimensional microcavity was formed by sandwiching a λ/n thick defect layer between two such DBRs. The emission of the quantum dots from the microcavity structure demonstrated directionality following the cavity mode dispersion and spectral narrowing. Room temperature time-resolved photoluminescence measurements carried out on this structure showed significant reduction in the photoluminescence decay time which is attributed primarily to nonradiative mechanism originating in the presence of the PVK host matrix. The photoluminescence decay time of the quantum dots was found to be 1000 ps while for the quantum dots embedded in the polymer host and the microcavity were 400 and 150 ps, respectively.     

Optical third-harmonic generation in one-dimensional photonic crystals and microcavities

The formalism of nonlinear transfer matrices is used to develop a phenomenological model of a cubic nonlinear-optical response of one-dimensional photonic crystals and microcavities. It is shown that third-harmonic generation can be resonantly enhanced by frequency-angular tuning of the fundamental wave to the photonic band-gap edges and the microcavity mode. The positions and amplitudes of third-harmonic resonances at the edges of a photonic band gap strongly depend on the value and sign of the dispersion of refractive indexes of the layers that constitute the photonic crystal. Model calculations elucidate the role played by phase matching and spatial localization of the fundamental and third-harmonic fields inside a photonic crystal as the main mechanisms of enhancement of third-harmonic generation. The experimental spectrum of third-harmonic intensity of a porous silicon microcavity agrees with the calculated results.     

Improvement of the luminescence in p-type as-prepared or dye impregnated porous silicon microcavities

We have realized distributed Bragg reflectors and microcavities with a remarkable optical quality (R_max.=99.5% at 850 nm, FWHM=5 nm at 772 nm) with low doped p-type silicon. This is due to a strong decrease of the porous Si/bulk Si interface roughness that was obtained by low-temperature anodization. The properties of porous silicon microcavities are investigated by photoluminescence and reflection measurements. We also have filled porous silicon with Rhodamine 800 dye. The spontaneous emission spectrum of the optically excited Rhodamine 800 is drastically modified by microcavity effect: the peak emission intensity is increased, the line width is narrowed. The results demonstrate that using all porous silicon or dye-filled microcavities provides new possibilities to improve the properties of photonic devices.     

Spontaneous emission in coupled microcavity-waveguide structures at the band edge

We examine spontaneous emission and photon dynamics in a microcavity coupled to a coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW) in a photonic crystal. We present an efficient tight-binding approach to obtain the Green tensor in large, arbitrary systems of coupled microcavities. We use this approach to examine spontaneous emission when the microcavity is strongly coupled to the CROW at the band center and band edge. We confirm the validity of weak-coupling theories for microcavities resonant at band center and obtain strong peak splitting in the previously inaccessible case of band-edge coupled structures.     

Physics and applications of photonic crystals

In this article, we investigate how the photonic band gaps and the variety of band dispersions of photonic crystals can be utilized for various applications and how they further give rise to completely novel optical phenomena. The enhancement of spontaneous emission through coupled cavity waveguides in a one-dimensional silicon nitride photonic microcrystal is investigated. We then present the highly directive radiation from sources embedded in two-dimensional photonic crystals. The manifestation of novel and intriguing optical properties of photonic crystals are exemplified experimentally by the negative refraction and the focusing of electromagnetic waves through a photonic crystal slab with subwavelength resolution.     

耦合结构有机微腔的光致发光特性

耦合光学微腔(Coupled optical microcavity,CMC)是一种特殊结构的微腔,在耦合微腔中,两个独立的微腔相邻耦合在一起.通常一个腔是无源的,另一个腔是有源的.首次研究了有机材料在耦合微腔中的自发发射特性.实验采用的有机发光材料为八羟基喹啉铝Tris(8-quinolinolato)aluminium(Alq₃),器件的结构为Glass/DBR_A/Filler/DBR_B/Alq₃/DBR_C.底部腔是无源的,组成为DBR_A/Filler/DBR_B.顶部腔是有源的,由DBR_B/Alq₃/DBR_C构成.其中反射镜DBR_A、DBR_B、DBR_C以及填充层(Filler)均由光学介质材料构成.通过结构设计使两个腔的谐振波长均位于530nm.耦合微腔器件与单层Alq₃薄膜相比较,Alq₃薄膜的光致发光光谱是峰值位于511nm的宽谱带,而在耦合微腔器件中观察到的是具有两个腔模式,峰值波长分别位于518,553nm的增强并窄化的光谱.这是由于两个腔的光场耦合引起了腔模式分裂.结果表明耦合微腔能极大地改变有机材料的自发发射特性,可以用来提高器件的发光效率.