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Dynamic modulation of photonic crystal nanocavities using gigahertz acoustic phonons

Nature Photonics volume 5, pages 605–609 (2011)Cite this article

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Abstract

Photonic crystal membranes provide a versatile planar platform for on-chip implementations of photonic quantum circuits1,2,3. One prominent quantum element is a coupled system consisting of a nanocavity and a single quantum dot4,5,6,7, which forms a fundamental building block for elaborate quantum information networks8,9,10 and a cavity quantum electrodynamic system controlled by single photons3. To date, no fast tuning mechanism is available to achieve control within the system coherence time. Here, we demonstrate dynamic tuning by monochromatic coherent acoustic phonons formed by a surface acoustic wave with frequencies exceeding 1.7 GHz, one order of magnitude faster than alternative approaches5,6,7. We resolve a periodic modulation of the optical mode exceeding eight times its linewidth, preserving both the spatial mode profile and a high quality factor. Because photonic crystal membranes confine photonic and phononic excitations11,12, coupling optical to acoustic frequencies, our technique opens up the way to coherent acoustic control of optomechanical crystals.

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Figure 1: Tuning mechanism setup and experimental results.
Figure 2: Time-integrated emission spectra for three different nanocavities and SAW frequencies.
Figure 3: Numerical simulations.
Figure 4: Comparison of SAW phase-resolved experimental data with 3D-FDTD simulation results.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) as part of the cluster of excellence ‘Nanosystems Initiative Munich’ (NIM) and via the Emmy-Noether-Programme (KR 3790/2-1), by the Bavaria-California Technology Center (BaCaTeC), by the National Science Foundation (NSF) via NIRT grant no. 0304678 and Marie Curie EXT-CT-2006-042580. A portion of this work was carried out in the UCSB nanofabrication facility, part of the NSF-funded NNIN network. S.M.T. acknowledges financial support from the US Department of Education GAANN grant. D.A.F. acknowledges support from the Bayerische Forschungsstiftung.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lehrstuhl für Experimentalphysik 1 and Augsburg Centre for Innovative Technologies (ACIT), Universität Augsburg, Universitätsstr. 1, Augsburg, 86159, Germany

    Daniel A. Fuhrmann, Achim Wixforth & Hubert J. Krenner

  2. Materials Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, California, USA

    Daniel A. Fuhrmann & Pierre M. Petroff

  3. Physics Department, University of California, Santa Barbara, 93106, California, USA

    Susanna M. Thon, Hyochul Kim & Dirk Bouwmeester

  4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, IREAP, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland, 20742, USA

    Hyochul Kim

  5. Huygens Laboratory, Leiden University, PO Box 9504, RA Leiden, 2300, The Netherlands

    Dirk Bouwmeester

  6. Center for Nanoscience (CeNS), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Geschwister-Scholl-Platz 1, München, 80539, Germany

    Achim Wixforth

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  1. Daniel A. Fuhrmann
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Contributions

D.A.F. performed the experiments and 3D-FDTD simulations. D.A.F. and S.M.T. designed, fabricated and characterized the devices. H.K. and P.M.P. fabricated the molecular beam epitaxy material. D.A.F. and H.J.K. performed data analysis and modelling, conceived the 3D-FDTD simulations and wrote the manuscript with contributions from all other authors. H.J.K., D.B., P.M.P. and A.W. inspired and supervised the project.

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Correspondence to Hubert J. Krenner.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Fuhrmann, D., Thon, S., Kim, H. et al. Dynamic modulation of photonic crystal nanocavities using gigahertz acoustic phonons. Nature Photon 5, 605–609 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2011.208

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