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Dynamic control of the Q factor in a photonic crystal nanocavity

Nature Materials volume 6, pages 862–865 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

High-quality (Q) factor photonic-crystal nanocavities1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 are currently the focus of much interest because they can strongly confine photons in a tiny space. Nanocavities with ultrahigh Q factors of up to 2,000,000 and modal volumes of a cubic wavelength have been realized8. If the Q factor could be dynamically controlled within the lifetime of a photon, significant advances would be expected in areas of physics and engineering such as the slowing and/or stopping of light9,10 and quantum-information processing11,12. For these applications, the transfer, storage and exchange of photons in nanocavity systems on such a timescale are highly desirable. Here, we present the first demonstration of dynamic control of the Q factor, by constructing a system composed of a nanocavity, a waveguide with nonlinear optical response and a photonic-crystal hetero-interface mirror. The Q factor of the nanocavity was successfully changed from ∼3,000 to ∼12,000 within picoseconds.

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Figure 1: Method for dynamic control of the nanocavity Q factor.
Figure 3: Fabricated sample and experimental set-up.
Figure 2: Finite-difference time-domain simulation of pump and probe experiments to demonstrate dynamic change of the Q factor.
Figure 4: Experimental results of pump and probe measurements of the dynamic change of the Q factor.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Research Programs (Grant-in-Aid, COE, and Special Coordination Fund) for Scientific Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and also by Core Research for Evolutional Science and Technology of the Japan Science and Technology Agency.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronic Science and Engineering, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan

    Yoshinori Tanaka, Jeremy Upham, Takushi Nagashima, Tomoaki Sugiya, Takashi Asano & Susumu Noda

  2. Photonics and Electronics Science and Engineering Center, Kyoto University, Kyoto 615-8510, Japan

    Susumu Noda

Authors
  1. Yoshinori Tanaka
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Correspondence to Susumu Noda.

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Tanaka, Y., Upham, J., Nagashima, T. et al. Dynamic control of the Q factor in a photonic crystal nanocavity. Nature Mater 6, 862–865 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nmat1994

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