Arka Majumdar

Electrical control of silicon photonic crystal cavity by graphene.

The efficient conversion of an electrical signal to an optical signal in nanophotonics enables solid state integration of electronics and photonics. The combination of graphene with photonic crystals is promising for electro-optic modulation. In this paper, we demonstrate that by electrostatic gating a single layer of graphene on top of a photonic crystal cavity, the cavity resonance can be changed significantly. A ~2 nm change in the cavity resonance line width and almost 400% (6 dB) change in resonance reflectivity is observed. In addition, our analysis shows that a graphene-photonic crystal device can potentially be useful for a high speed and low power absorptive and refractive modulator, while maintaining a small physical footprint.

Ultrafast direct modulation of a single-mode photonic crystal nanocavity light-emitting diode

We demonstrate an electrically driven single mode photonic crystal cavity LED with record speed of operation (10 GHz) and 0.25 fJ/bit energy consumption, the lowest of any optical transmitter to date.

Control of two-dimensional excitonic light emission via photonic crystal

Monolayers of transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) have emerged as new optoelectronic materials in the two dimensional (2D) limit, exhibiting rich spin-valley interplays, tunable excitonic effects, and strong light–matter interactions. An essential yet undeveloped ingredient for many photonic applications is the manipulation of its light emission. Here we demonstrate the control of excitonic light emission from monolayer tungsten diselenide (WSe2) in an integrated photonic structure, achieved by transferring one monolayer onto a photonic crystal (PhC) with a cavity. In addition to the observation of an effectively coupled cavity-mode emission, the suspension effects on PhC not only result in a greatly enhanced (~60 times) photoluminescence but also strongly pattern the emission in the subwavelength spatial scale, contrasting on and off the holes. Such an effect leads to a significant diffraction grating effect, which allows us to redistribute the emitted photons both polarly and azimuthally in the far field through designing PhC structures, as revealed by momentum-resolved microscopy. A 2D optical antenna is thus constructed. Our work suggests a new way of manipulating photons in hybrid 2D photonics, important for future energy efficient optoelectronics and 2D nano-lasers.

Ultrafast Photon-Photon Interaction in a Strongly Coupled Quantum Dot-Cavity System

We study dynamics of the interaction between two weak light beams mediated by a strongly coupled quantum dot-photonic crystal cavity system. First, we perform all-optical switching of a weak continuous-wave signal with a pulsed control beam, and then perform switching between two weak pulsed beams (40 ps pulses). Our results show that the quantum dot-nanocavity system enables fast, controllable optical switching at the single-photon level.

Low contrast dielectric metasurface optics

We demonstrate low contrast dielectric metasurface optical elements for operation at visible frequencies. Our devices show transmission efficiencies as high as 90% and focal spots on the order of the design wavelength.

Integrated quantum optical networks based on quantum dots and photonic crystals

Single solid-state optical emitters have quantum mechanical properties that make them suitable for applications in information processing and sensing. Most of these quantum technologies rely on the capability to integrate the emitters in reliable solid-state optical networks. In this paper, we present integrated devices based on GaAs photonic crystals and InAs self-assembled quantum dots. These quantum networks are well suited to future optoelectronic devices operating at ultralow power levels, single-photon logic devices and quantum information processing.

Loss-enabled sub-poissonian light generation in a bimodal nanocavity.

We propose an implementation of a source of strongly sub-poissonian light in a system consisting of a quantum dot coupled to both modes of a lossy bimodal optical cavity. When one mode of the cavity is resonantly driven with coherent light, the system will act as an efficient single photon filter, and the transmitted light will have a strongly sub-poissonian character. In addition to numerical simulations demonstrating this effect, we present a physical explanation of the underlying mechanism. In particular, we show that the effect results from an interference between the coherent light transmitted through the resonant cavity and the super-poissonian light generated by photon-induced tunneling. Peculiarly, this effect vanishes in the absence of the cavity loss.

Fast Electrical Control of a Quantum Dot Strongly Coupled to a Photonic-Crystal Cavity

The resonance frequency of an InAs quantum dot strongly coupled to a GaAs photonic-crystal cavity was electrically controlled via the quadratic quantum confined Stark effect. Stark shifts up to 0.3 meV were achieved using a lateral Schottky electrode that created a local depletion region at the location of the quantum dot. We report switching of a probe laser coherently coupled to the cavity up to speeds as high as 150 MHz, limited by the RC constant of the transmission line. The coupling strength g and the magnitude of the Stark shift with electric field were investigated while coherently probing the system.

Cavity quantum electrodynamics with a single quantum dot coupled to a photonic molecule

We demonstrate the effects of cavity quantum electrodynamics for a quantum dot coupled to a photonic molecule, consisting of a pair of coupled photonic crystal cavities. We show anti-crossing between the quantum dot and the two super-modes of the photonic molecule, signifying achievement of the strong coupling regime. From the anti-crossing data, we estimate the contributions of both mode-coupling and intrinsic detuning to the total detuning between the super-modes. Finally, we also show signatures of off-resonant cavity-cavity interaction in the photonic molecule.

Fast quantum dot single photon source triggered at telecommunications wavelength

We demonstrate a 300 MHz quantum dot single photon source at 900 nm triggered by a telecommunications wavelength laser. The quantum dot is excited by on-chip-generated second harmonic radiation, resonantly enhanced by a photonic nanocavity.