Amir Nevet

Plasmonic Nanoantennas for Broad-Band Enhancement of Two-Photon Emission from Semiconductors

We demonstrate experimentally and theoretically a broad-band enhancement of the spontaneous two-photon emission from AlGaAs at room temperature by plasmonic nanoantenna arrays fabricated on the semiconductor surface. Plasmonic structures with inherently low quality factors but very small effective volumes are shown to be optimal. A 20-fold enhancement was achieved for the entire antenna array, corresponding to an enhancement of nearly 3 orders of magnitude for charge carriers emitting at the near field of a plasmonic antenna.

Resonances on-demand for plasmonic nano-particles.

A method for designing plasmonic particles with desired resonance spectra by exploiting the interaction of local geometry with surface charge distribution and applying evolutionary algorithm is presented. The method is based on repetitive perturbations of an initial particles shape while calculating the eigenvalues of the various quasistatic resonances. Novel family of particles with collocated dipole-quadrupole resonances was designed, as an example for the unique power of the method.

Applications of two-photon processes in semiconductor photonic devices: invited review

Semiconductor photonics is an advanced field, both from fundamental and applicative points of view, aimed at the integration of the unique features of optical communications and quantum optics with the miniaturization and controllability of semiconductors. Many classical and quantum applications may benefit from interaction between optical signals, usually implemented by nonlinear optical processes of various orders. The efficiency of such processes in semiconductors is being constantly enhanced, assisted by the progress in ultrashort laser pulses and ultra-sensitive detectors, enabling practical devices. In this review, the lowest order of nonlinear interactions-–the two-photon processes in semiconductors—are discussed, and their applications to a variety of novel classical and quantum configurations are reviewed.

Light emission rate enhancement from InP MQW by plasmon nano-antenna arrays

Arrays of gold single-strip and double-strip nano-antennas, with resonance in the wavelength range of 1200-1600 nm, were fabricated on the top of InGaAs/InP multi quantum well structure. Photo-luminescence from the quantum-wells was measured and shown to be enhanced by a factor of up to 9, with maximum enhancement wavelength corresponding to the nano-antennas resonance. Emission enhancement is attributed to the coupling of emitting charge-carriers to the plasmonic nano-antennas, causing an estimated increase in the radiative recombination rate by a factor of ~25, thus making it dominant over non-radiative recombination. This effect will enable fast modulation of InP-based nano-emitters spontaneously emitting at telecom-wavelength.

All-optical linear reconfigurable logic with nonlinear phase erasure

We introduce a novel all-optical logic architecture whereby the gates may be readily reconfigured to reprogram their logic to implement (N)AND/(N)OR/X(N)OR. A single gate structure may be used throughout the logic circuit to implement multiple truth tables. The reconfiguration is effected by an optical reference signal. The reference may also be adapted to an arbitrary Boolean complex alphabet at the gate logic inputs and calibrated to correct gate imperfections. The all-optical gate structure is partitioned into a linear interferometric front end and a nonlinear back end. In the linear section, two optical logic inputs, along with a reference signal, linearly interfere. The nonlinear back end realizes a phase-erasure (or phase-reset) function. The reconfiguration and recalibration capabilities, along with the functional decoupling between the linear and nonlinear sections of each gate, facilitate the potential aggregation of large gate counts into logic arrays. A fundamental lower bound for the expended energy per gate is derived as 3hnu+kT ln2 Joules per bit.

Ultrafast three-photon counting in a photomultiplier tube

We demonstrate experimentally ultrafast three-photon counting by three-photon absorption in a GaAsP photomultiplier tube at the wavelength range of 1800-1900 nm, and analyze its sensitivity and time response. Pulse energy of ∼500 fJ is shown to be detectable for ultrafast 170 fs pulses. The presented three-photon counter may serve as a unique tool for ultrafast quantum state characterization as well as for ultrasensitive third-order temporal measurements.

Ultrafast pulse compression by semiconductor two-photon gain.

We demonstrate experimentally the compression of femtosecond-scale pulses by two-photon gain in a compact electrically driven AlGaAs waveguide. Dynamic control of the pulse width from 240 to 140 fs is achieved by varying the current injection levels--in good agreement with the calculations. The pulse width is measured by a high-sensitivity intensity autocorrelator based on two-photon absorption in a GaAs photomultiplier tube.

Ultrafast partial measurement of fourth-order coherence by HBT interferometry of upconversion-based autocorrelation

We introduce, analyze, and experimentally demonstrate a compact semiconductor-based scheme for a femtosecond-scale partial fourth-order coherence g((4)) measurements. The scheme is based on a start-stop photon-counting Hanbury Brown and Twiss (HBT) interferometry of an upconversion-based Michelson-interferometer autocorrelation. The experimental realization employs second-harmonic generation in a semiconductor quantum-well structure, which may be further integrated with the HBT setup as a miniature photonic circuit, allowing compact characterization devices for photon-pair statistics in quantum photonics and quantum information processing.

Measuring the refractive index around intersubband transition resonance in GaN/AlN multi quantum wells.

We present the direct measurement of the refractive index distribution (spectral dispersion) arising from an intersubband transition in GaN/AlN multi quantum wells structure. The measurement is carried out through a novel interferometric technique. The measured interferogram yields a change in the refractive index varying from -5 × 10(-3) to 6 × 10(-3) as a function of the wavelength, introduced by the intersubband resonance at 1.5 µm. These results compare well with those derived using Kramers-Kronig transform of the measured absorption spectrum.

Cascadable and reconfigurable photonic logic gates based on linear lightwave interference and non-linear phase erasure

Feasibility of cascading and reconfiguring a pair of linear-nonlinear all-optical logic gate structures is experimentally demonstrated using RF photonics. Progress in highly integrated O/E/O repeaters over Si/InP hybrid platforms enables large-scale reconfigurable gate arrays.