Jeff F. Young

Site-Selective Optical Coupling of PbSe Nanocrystals to Si-Based Photonic Crystal Microcavities

A novel method for patterning optically active colloidal PbSe nanocrystals on Si surfaces is reported. Oleate-capped PbSe nanocrystals were found to adhere preferentially to H-terminated Si surfaces over oxide and alkyl-terminated Si surfaces. Scanning probe lithography was used to oxidize locally a dodecyl monolayer on the Si surface of a silicon-on-insulator wafer prepatterned with photonic crystal microcavities. Aqueous HF was then used to remove the oxide and expose H-terminated Si areas, yielding patterned PbSe nanocrystals on the Si surface after exposure to a nanocrystal solution. This patterning technique allows for the selective deposition of PbSe nanocrystals at the main antinode of the silicon-based microcavities. More than a 10-fold photoluminescence enhancement due to the cavity-nanocrystal coupling was observed.

Quasinormal mode approach to modelling light-emission and propagation in nanoplasmonics

We describe a powerful and intuitive theoretical technique for modeling light–matter interactions in classical and quantum nanoplasmonics. Our approach uses a quasinormal mode (QNM) expansion of the photon Green function within a metal nanoresonator of arbitrary shape, together with a Dyson equation, to derive an expression for the spontaneous decay rate and far field propagator from dipole oscillators outside resonators. For a single QNM, at field positions outside the quasi-static coupling regime, we give a closed form solution for the Purcell factor and generalized effective mode volume. We augment this with an analytic expression for the divergent local density of optical states very near the metal surface, which allows us to derive a simple and highly accurate expression for the electric field outside the metal resonator at distances from a few nanometers to infinity. This intuitive formalism provides an enormous simplification over full numerical calculations and fixes several pending problems in QNM theory.

Waveguide integrated superconducting single-photon detectors implemented as near-perfect absorbers of coherent radiation.

At the core of an ideal single-photon detector is an active material that absorbs and converts every incident photon to a discriminable signal. A large active material favours efficient absorption, but often at the expense of conversion efficiency, noise, speed and timing accuracy. In this work, short (8.5u2009μm long) and narrow (8 × 35u2009nm(2)) U-shaped NbTiN nanowires atop silicon-on-insulator waveguides are embedded in asymmetric nanobeam cavities that render them as near-perfect absorbers despite their small volume. At 2.05u2009K, when biased at 0.9 of the critical current, the resulting superconducting single-photon detectors achieve a near-unity on-chip quantum efficiency for ∼1,545u2009nm photons, an intrinsic dark count rate <0.1u2009Hz, a reset time of ∼7u2009ns, and a timing jitter of ∼55u2009ps full-width at half-maximum. Such ultracompact, high-performance detectors are essential for progress in integrated quantum optics.

Controlled Generation of Squeezed States of Microwave Radiation in a Superconducting Resonant Circuit

Superconducting oscillators have been successfully used for quantum control and readout devices in conjunction with superconducting qubits. Also, squeezed states can improve the accuracy of measurements to subquantum, or at least subthermal, levels. Here, we show theoretically how to produce squeezed states of microwave radiation in a superconducting oscillator with tunable parameters. Its resonance frequency can be changed by controlling an rf SQUID inductively coupled to the oscillator. By repeatedly shifting the resonance frequency between any two values, it is possible to produce squeezed and subthermal states of the electromagnetic field in the (0.1-10) GHz range, even when the relative frequency change is small. We propose experimental protocols for the verification of squeezed state generation, and for their use to improve the readout fidelity when such oscillators serve as quantum transducers.

Emission spectrum of electromagnetic energy stored in a dynamically perturbed optical microcavity

An ultrafast pump-probe experiment is performed on wavelength-scale, silicon-based, optical microcavities that confine light in three dimensions with resonant wavelengths near 1.5 mum, and lifetimes on the order of 20 ps. A below-bandgap probe pulse tuned to overlap the cavity resonant frequency is used to inject electromagnetic energy into the cavity, and an above-bandgap pump pulse is used to generate free carriers in the silicon, thus altering the real and imaginary components of the cavitys refractive index, and hence its resonant frequency and lifetime. When the pump pulse injects a carrier density of ~ 5 x10(17) cm(-3) before the resonant probe pulse strikes the sample, the emitted radiation from the cavity is blue-shifted by 16 times the bare cavity linewidth, and the new linewidth is 3.5 times wider than the original. When the pump pulse injects carriers, and thus suddenly perturbs the cavity properties after the probe pulse has injected energy into the cavity, we show that the emitted radiation is not simply a superposition of Lorentzians centred at the initial and perturbed cavity frequencies. Under these conditions, a simple model and the experimental results show that the power spectrum of radiation emitted by the stored electromagnetic energy when the cavity frequency is perturbed during ring-down consists of a series of coherent oscillations between the original and perturbed cavity frequencies, accompanied by a gradual decrease and broadening of the original cavity line, and the emergence of the new cavity resonance. The modified cavity lifetime is shown to have a significant impact on the evolution of the emission as a function of the pump-probe delay.

All-optical conditional logic with a nonlinear photonic crystal nanocavity

We demonstrate tunable frequency-converted light mediated by a χ(2) nonlinear photonic crystal nanocavity. The InP-based cavity supports two closely spaced localized modes near 1550 nm, which are resonantly excited by a 130 fs laser pulse. The cavity is simultaneously irradiated with a nonresonant probe beam, giving rise to rich second-order scattering spectra showing nonlinear mixing of the different resonant and nonresonant components. We highlight the radiation at the sum frequencies of the probe beam and the respective cavity modes. This would be a useful, minimally invasive monitor of the joint occupancy state of multiple cavities in an integrated optical circuit.

Photonic crystal slot-microcavity circuit implemented in silicon-on-insulator: High Q operation in solvent without undercutting

We report the fabrication and characterization of a silicon-based photonic integrated circuit consisting of a photonic crystal slot-cavity, waveguides, and grating couplers, designed as a robust, easy-to-use device for enhancing light-matter interactions at a precise location inside a fluidic medium, while minimizing fabrication complexity. Measured Q values in excess of 7500 for circuits immersed in hexane and operating near 1.5u2009μm are obtained, in good agreement with simulations. The detection limit for changes in solvent refractive index unit (RIU) for these structures, which have not been optimized, is 2.3×10−5 RIU.

Efficient coupling of photonic crystal microcavity modes to a ridge waveguide

The unidirectional coupling of a microcavity mode to a ridge waveguide in a slab photonic crystal structure was investigated for the first time. Experimental observation of the coupling efficiency for the signal coupled out of the structure is in good agreement with the result of three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations. The coupling efficiency of the cavity mode to the output channel is ∼60%.

Ultrasensitive Diagnostic Analysis of Au Nanoparticles Optically Trapped in Silicon Photonic Circuits at Sub-Milliwatt Powers

Silicon microcavity-based optical trapping of Au nanoparticles with diameters as small as ≈24 nm is achieved using optical powers <1 mW. By comparing measured and modeled histograms of transmission time series data obtained when a particle is trapped in the cavity, it is shown that the influence of backaction on the transmitted light dynamics alone can be used to determine the size of trapped particles with nanometer precision.

Saturation behaviour of colloidal PbSe quantum dot exciton emission coupled into silicon photonic circuits.

We report coupling of the excitonic photon emission from photoexcited PbSe colloidal quantum dots (QDs) into an optical circuit that was fabricated in a silicon-on-insulator wafer using a CMOS-compatible process. The coupling between excitons and sub-μm sized silicon channel waveguides was mediated by a photonic crystal microcavity. The intensity of the coupled light saturates rapidly with the optical excitation power. The saturation behaviour was quantitatively studied using an isolated photonic crystal cavity with PbSe QDs site-selectively located at the cavity mode antinode position. Saturation occurs when a few μW of continuous wave HeNe pump power excites the QDs with a Gaussian spot size of 2 μm. By comparing the results with a master equation analysis that rigorously accounts for the complex dielectric environment of the QD excitons, the saturation is attributed to ground state depletion due to a non-radiative exciton decay channel with a trap state lifetime ~ 3 μs.