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Wavelength-accurate nonlinear conversion through wavenumber selectivity in photonic crystal resonators

Nature Photonics volume 18, pages 192–199 (2024)Cite this article

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Abstract

Integrated nonlinear wavelength converters transfer optical energy from lasers or quantum emitters to other useful colours, but chromatic dispersion limits the range of achievable wavelength shifts. Moreover, because of geometric dispersion, fabrication tolerances reduce the accuracy with which devices produce specific target wavelengths. Here we report nonlinear wavelength converters that allow output wavelengths to be controlled with high accuracy despite their operation not being contingent on dispersion engineering. In our scheme, coupling between counterpropagating waves in a photonic crystal microresonator induces a photonic bandgap that isolates (in dispersion space) specific wavenumbers for nonlinear gain. We demonstrate the wide applicability of this strategy by simulating its use in third-harmonic generation, Kerr-microcomb dispersive wave formation and four-wave mixing Bragg scattering. In experiments, we demonstrate Kerr optical parametric oscillators in which such wavenumber-selective coupling designates the signal mode. As a result, differences between the targeted and realized signal wavelengths are <0.3%. Moreover, leveraging the bandgap-protected wavenumber selectivity, we continuously tune the output frequencies by nearly 300 GHz without compromising efficiency. Our results will bring about a paradigm shift in how microresonators are designed for nonlinear optics, and they make headway on the larger problem of building wavelength-accurate light sources using integrated photonics.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual depictions of wavenumber-selective nonlinear wavelength conversion in Kerr photonic crystal microresonators.
Fig. 2: Simulations of nonlinear wavelength conversion in Kerr photonic crystal microresonators.
Fig. 3: Wavenumber-selective μOPOs in Kerr photonic crystal microresonators.
Fig. 4: Optical parametric oscillation using selective splitting in undulated microrings (OPOSSUM).
Fig. 5: Modelling OPOSSUM with the LLE.
Fig. 6: Exploring wavelength tunability in OPOSSUM.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

Code availability

The programs used to simulate the coupled-mode and Lugiato–Lefever equations are available from the corresponding authors upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

We thank E. Perez and M. Chojnacky for providing useful feedback during the preparation of the paper. We acknowledge funding support from the the DARPA LUMOS and NIST-on-a-chip programmes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

    Jordan R. Stone, Xiyuan Lu, Gregory Moille, Tahmid Rahman & Kartik Srinivasan

  2. National Institute for Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

    Jordan R. Stone, Xiyuan Lu, Gregory Moille, Daron Westly, Tahmid Rahman & Kartik Srinivasan

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  1. Jordan R. Stone
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Contributions

J.R.S. envisioned and performed the experiments and analysed the data. X.L. fabricated the devices, contributed experimental ideas and assisted with device design. G.M. assisted with device design and helped to analyse the data. D.W. fabricated the devices, T.R. helped to characterize the devices and K.S. analysed the data and consulted on the experiments.

Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jordan R. Stone or Kartik Srinivasan.

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Competing interests

NIST/UMD have filed patent applications, with J.R.S., K.S. and X.L. listed as the inventors. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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Nature Photonics thanks Alfredo de Rossi, Dawn Tan and the other, anonymous, reviewer(s) for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2 and Discussion.

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Stone, J.R., Lu, X., Moille, G. et al. Wavelength-accurate nonlinear conversion through wavenumber selectivity in photonic crystal resonators. Nat. Photon. 18, 192–199 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-023-01326-6

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