Chang-Ling Zou

Two-photon pumped lasing in single-crystal organic nanowire exciton polariton resonators.

Single-crystal organic nanowires were fabricated with a soft-template-assisted self-assembly method in liquid phase. These nanowires with rectangular cross section can serve as resonators for exciton-photon coupling, leading to a microcavity effect and a relatively low threshold of laser actions. Two-photon-pumped blue lasing was observed in these organic waveguiding nanostructures above a threshold of 60 nJ, excited with a 750 nm near-infrared femtosecond pulse laser at 77 K.

High-Q Exterior Whispering-Gallery Modes in a Metal-Coated Microresonator

We propose a kind of plasmonic whispering-gallery mode highly localized on the exterior surface of a metal-coated microresonator. This exterior (EX) surface mode possesses high quality factors at room temperature, and can be efficiently excited by a tapered fiber. The EX mode can couple to an interior (IN) mode and this coupling produces a strong anticrossing behavior, which not only allows conversion of IN to EX modes, but also forms a long-lived antisymmetric mode. As a potential application, the EX mode could be used for a biosensor with a sensitivity high of up to 500 nm per refraction index unit, a large figure of merit, and a wide detection range.

Strongly coupled magnons and cavity microwave photons.

We realize a cavity magnon-microwave photon system in which a magnetic dipole interaction mediates strong coupling between the collective motion of a large number of spins in a ferrimagnet and the microwave field in a three-dimensional cavity. By scaling down the cavity size and increasing the number of spins, an ultrastrong coupling regime is achieved with a cooperativity reaching 12,600. Interesting dynamic features including classical Rabi-like oscillation, magnetically induced transparency, and the Purcell effect are demonstrated in this highly versatile platform, highlighting its great potential for coherent information processing.

Plasmon modes of silver nanowire on a silica substrate

Plasmon mode in a silver nanowire is theoretically studied when the nanowire is placed on or near a silica substrate. It is found that the substrate has much influence on the plasmon mode. For the nanowire on the substrate, the plasmon (hybrid) mode possesses not only a long propagation length but also an ultrasmall mode area. From the experimental point of view, this cavity-free structure holds a great potential to study a strong coherent interaction between the plasmon mode and single quantum system (for example, quantum dots) embedded in the substrate.

Experimental realization of optomechanically induced non-reciprocity

Non-magnetic non-reciprocal transparency and amplification is experimentally achieved by optomechanics using a whispering-gallery microresonator. The idea may lead to integrated all-optical isolators or non-reciprocal phase shifters.

Experimental observation of Fano resonance in a single whispering-gallery microresonator

We experimentally observe Fano resonance in a single silica toroidal microresonator, in which two whispering-gallery modes (WGMs) are excited simultaneously through a fiber taper. By adjusting the fiber-cavity coupling strength and the polarization of incident light, the Fano-like resonance line shape can be engineered and further convert to the electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) like line shape. Our theoretical analysis reveals that both the Fano and EIT resonances originate from an indirect-coupling of two originally orthogonal WGMs, which is mediated by the common fiber taper waveguide. The sharp Fano line shape holds great potential in optical switching and sensitivity-enhanced biochemical sensing.

Brillouin-scattering-induced transparency and non-reciprocal light storage.

Stimulated Brillouin scattering is a fundamental interaction between light and travelling acoustic waves and arises primarily from electrostriction and photoelastic effects, with an interaction strength several orders of magnitude greater than that of other relevant non-linear optical processes. Here we report an experimental demonstration of Brillouin-scattering-induced transparency in a high-quality whispering-gallery-mode optical microresonantor. The triply resonant Stimulated Brillouin scattering process underlying the Brillouin-scattering-induced transparency greatly enhances the light–acoustic interaction, enabling the storage of light as a coherent, circulating acoustic wave with a lifetime up to 10 μs. Furthermore, because of the phase-matching requirement, a circulating acoustic wave can only couple to light with a given propagation direction, leading to non-reciprocal light storage and retrieval. These unique features establish a new avenue towards integrated all-optical switching with low-power consumption, optical isolators and circulators.

Packaged silica microsphere-taper coupling system for robust thermal sensing application

We propose and realize a novel packaged microsphere-taper coupling structure (PMTCS) with a high quality factor (Q) up to 5×10(6) by using the low refractive index (RI) ultraviolet (UV) glue as the coating material. The optical loss of the PMTCS is analyzed experimentally and theoretically, which indicate that the Q is limited by the glue absorption and the radiation loss. Moreover, to verify the practicability of the PMTCS, thermal sensing experiments are carried out, showing the excellent convenience and anti-jamming ability of the PMTCS with a high temperature resolution of 1.1×10(-3) ◦C. The experiments also demonstrate that the PMTCS holds predominant advantages, such as the robustness, mobility, isolation, and the PMTCS can maintain the high Q for a long time. The above advantages make the PMTCS strikingly attractive and potential in the fiber-integrated sensors and laser.

Experimental controlling of Fano resonance in indirectly coupled whispering-gallery microresonators

We experimentally studied the transmission spectrum of a coupled resonator structure in which a low-Q microdisk and a high-Q microtoroid indirectly interact with each other mediated by a fiber taper. Asymmetric Fano resonances were observed and could be controlled to change periodically by adjusting the distance between the two microresonators. It is revealed that the Fano resonance originates from the coupling of the two modes belonging to the two microresonators. The observed period of distance change is around 8 μm, which shows good agreement with the theoretical prediction by the beat of multiple propagating modes in the fiber taper.

Highly Unidirectional Emission and Ultralow‐Threshold Lasing from On‐Chip Ultrahigh‐Q Microcavities

Prominent examples are whispering gallery mode (WGM) microcavities, [ 2 , 3 ] which confi ne photons by means of continuous total internal refl ection along a curved and smooth surface. The long photon lifetime (described by high Q factors), strong fi eld confi nement, and in-plane emission characteristics make them promising candidates for novel light sources [ 4–9 ] and biochemical sensors with the ability of detecting few or even single nanoparticles. [ 10 , 11 ] The principal disadvantage of circular WGM microcavities is their intrinsic isotropy of emission due to their rotational symmetry. In addition to the photonic structures consisting of two or more perfectly spherical microcavities, [ 12 ] one of vital solutions is to use deformed microcavities by breaking the rotational symmetry, [ 13–16 ] which can provide not only the directional emission but also the effi cient and robust excitation of WGMs by a free-space optical beam. [ 17–20 ] Deformed microcavities fabricated on a chip are particularly desired for high-density optoelectronic integration, but they suffer from low Q factors in experiments. The Q factors are typically around or even smaller than ten thousand [ 21–27 ] limited by the large scattering losses from the involuntary surface roughness. The high Q factor is of great importance in fundamental studies and on-chip photonic applications. Here, with a pattern transfer technique and a refl ow process ensuring a nearly atomic-scale microcavity surface, we demonstrate experimentally on-chip undoped silica deformed microcavities which support both nearly unidirectional emission and ultrahigh Q factors exceeding 100 million. Consequently, low-threshold, unidirectional microlasing in such a microcavity with Q factor about 3 million is realized by erbium doping and a convenient free-space excitation.