Abstract
Light is intrinsically very difficult to store in a small space. The ability to trap photons for a long time (photon lifetime, τph) and to slow the propagation of light plays a significant role in quantum information1,2,3 and optical processing4,5,6. Photonic-crystal cavities with an ultrahigh quality factor (Q) are attracting attention7,8 because of their extremely small volume; however, high-Q demonstrations have been accomplished only with spectral measurements9,10,11. Here we describe time-domain measurements on photonic-crystal cavities with the highest Q among wavelength-scale cavities, and show directly that photons are trapped for one nanosecond. These techniques constitute clear and accurate ways of investigating ultrasmall and long τph systems. We also show that optical pulses are delayed for ∼1.45 ns, corresponding to light propagation at ∼2×10−5 c the speed of light in a vacuum, which is the slowest for any dielectric slow-light medium. Furthermore, we succeeded in dynamically changing the Q within the τph, which is key to realizing the dynamic control of light12,13 and photon-trapping memory14.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on SpringerLink
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Julsgaard, B., Sherson, J., Cirac J-I., Fiurášek, J. & Polzik E. S. Experimental demonstration of quantum memory for light. Nature 432, 482–486 (2004).
Reithmaier, J. P. et al. Strong coupling in a single quantum dot-semiconductor microcavity system. Nature 432, 197–200 (2004).
Yoshie, T. et al. Vacuum Rabi splitting with a single quantum dot in a photonic crystal nanocavity. Nature 432, 200–203 (2004).
Almeida, V. R., Barrios, C. A., Panepucci, R. R. & Lipson, M. All-optical control of light on a silicon chip. Nature 431, 1081–1084 (2004).
Tanabe, T., Notomi, M., Mitsugi, S., Shinya, A. & Kuramochi, E. All-optical switches on a silicon chip realized using photonic crystal nanocavities. Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 151112 (2005).
Birnbaum, K. M., Boca, A., Miller, R., Boozer, A. D., Northup, T. E. & Kimble, H. J. Photon blockade in an optical cavity with one trapped atom. Nature 436, 87–90 (2005).
Kimble, H. J. Strong interactions of single atoms and photons in cavity QED. Physica Scripta T76, 127–137 (1998).
Soljačić, M. & Joannopoulos, J. D. Enhancement of nonlinear effects using photonic crystals. Nature Mat. 3, 211–219 (2004).
Akahane, Y., Asano, T., Song, B. S. & Noda S. High-Q photonic nanocavity in a two-dimensional photonic crystal. Nature 425, 944–947 (2003).
Song, B. S., Noda, S., Asano, T. & Akahane, Y. Ultra-high-Q photonic double-heterostructure nanocavity. Nature Mat. 4, 207–210 (2005).
Kuramochi, E., Notomi, M., Mitsugi, S., Shinya, A. & Tanabe, T. Ultrahigh-Q photonic crystal nanocavities realized by the local width modulation of a line defect. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 041112 (2006).
Notomi, M. & Mitsugi, S. Wavelength conversion via dynamic refractive index tuning of a cavity. Phys. Rev. A 73, 051803 (2006).
Notomi, M., Taniyama, H., Mitsugi, S. & Kuramochi, E. Optomechanical wavelength and energy conversion in high-Q double-layer cavities of photonic crystal slabs. Phys. Rev. Lett. 97, 023903 (2006).
Notomi, M. et al. Dynamic control of light by photonic-crystal resonator-waveguide-coupled system. In Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/Quantum Electronics and Laser Science Conference and Photonic Applications Systems Technologies 2006 Technical Digest (Optical Society of America, Washington, DC, 2006) QWA1.
Harris, S. E. Electromagnetically induced transparency. Phys. Today 50, 36–42 (1997).
Lukin, M. D. & Imamoglu, A. Controlling photons using electromagnetically induced transparency. Nature 413, 273–276 (2001).
Notomi, M. et al. Extremely large group-velocity dispersion of line-defect waveguides in photonic crystal slabs. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 253902 (2001).
Kiyota, K., Kise, T., Yokouchi, N., Ide, T. & Baba, T. Various low group velocity effects in photonic crystal line defect waveguides and their demonstration by laser oscillation. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 201904 (2006).
Armani, D. K., Kippenberg, T. J., Spillane, S. M. & Vahala, K. J. Ultra-high-Q toroid microcavity on a chip. Nature 421, 925–928 (2003).
Borselli, M., Johnson, T. J. & Painter, O. Measuring the role of surface chemistry in silicon microphotonics. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 131114 (2006).
Kippenberg, T. J. Spillane, S. M. & Vahala, K. J. Demonstration of ultra-high-Q small mode volume toroid microcavities on a chip. Appl. Phys. Lett. 85, 6113–6115 (2004).
Tanabe, T., Notomi, M., Mitsugi, S., Shinya, A. & Kuramochi, E. Fast bistable all-optical switch and memory on a silicon photonic crystal on-chip. Opt. Lett. 30, 2575–2577 (2005).
O'Keefe, A. & Deacon, D. Cavity ring-down optical spectrometer for absorption measurements using pulsed laser sources. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 59, 2544–2551 (1988).
Asano, T., Kunishi, W., Song, B.-S. & Noda, S. Time-domain response of point-defect cavities in two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs using picosecond light pulse. Appl. Phys. Lett. 88, 151102 (2006).
Notomi, M. et al. Optical bistable switching action of Si high-Q photonic-crystal nanocavities. Opt. Express 13, 2678–2687 (2005).
Barclay, P. E., Srinivasan, K. & Painter, O. Nonlinear response of silicon photonic crystal microresonators excited via an integrated waveguide and fiber taper. Opt. Express 13, 801–820 (2005).
Yariv, A., Xu, Y., Lee, R. K. & Scherer, A. Coupled-resonator optical waveguide: a proposal and analysis. Opt. Lett. 24, 711–713 (1999).
Bollinger, L. & Thomas, G. Measurement of the time dependence of scintillation intensity by a delayed-coincidence method. Rev. Sci. Instrum. 32, 1044–1050 (1961).
Yanik, M. F. & Fan, S. Stopping light all optically. Phys. Rev. Lett. 92, 083901 (2004).
Acknowledgements
The authors thank Dr H. Kamada for fruitful discussions.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
T.T. performed the experiment, M.N. planned the project, E.K. fabricated the sample, and both A.S. and H.T. supported the numerical calculation and discussion.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tanabe, T., Notomi, M., Kuramochi, E. et al. Trapping and delaying photons for one nanosecond in an ultrasmall high-Q photonic-crystal nanocavity. Nature Photon 1, 49–52 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2006.51
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2006.51
This article is cited by
-
Slow waves on long helices
Scientific Reports (2022)
-
Recent Advances of Efficient Design of Terahertz Quantum-Cascade Lasers
Plasmonics (2021)
-
Frequency-Coded mm-Wave Tags for Self-Localization System Using Dielectric Resonators
Journal of Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (2020)
-
Slow and fast single photons from a quantum dot interacting with the excited state hyperfine structure of the Cesium D1-line
Scientific Reports (2019)
-
High-Q side-coupled semi-2D-photonic crystal cavity
Scientific Reports (2016)