Parag B. Deotare

High quality factor photonic crystal nanobeam cavities

We investigate the design, fabrication, and experimental characterization of high quality factor photonic crystal nanobeam cavities in silicon. Using a five-hole tapered one-dimensional photonic crystal mirror and precise control of the cavity length, we designed cavities with theoretical quality factors as high as 1.4×107. By detecting the cross-polarized resonantly scattered light from a normally incident laser beam, we measure a quality factor of nearly 7.5×105. The effect of cavity size on mode frequency and quality factor was simulated and then verified experimentally.

Photonic crystal nanobeam cavity strongly coupled to the feeding waveguide

A deterministic design of an ultrahigh Q-factor, wavelength-scale photonic crystal nanobeam cavity is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. Using this approach, cavities with Q>106 and on-resonance transmission T>90% are designed. The devices, fabricated in silicon and capped with a low refractive index polymer, have experimental Q=80 000 and T=73%. This is, to the best of our knowledge, the highest transmission measured in deterministically designed, wavelength-scale high-Q cavities.

Visualization of exciton transport in ordered and disordered molecular solids

Transport of nanoscale energy in the form of excitons is at the core of photosynthesis and the operation of a wide range of nanostructured optoelectronic devices such as solar cells, light-emitting diodes and excitonic transistors. Of particular importance is the relationship between exciton transport and nanoscale disorder, the defining characteristic of molecular and nanostructured materials. Here we report a spatial, temporal and spectral visualization of exciton transport in molecular crystals and disordered thin films. Using tetracene as an archetype molecular crystal, the imaging reveals that exciton transport occurs by random walk diffusion, with a transition to subdiffusion as excitons become trapped. By controlling the morphology of the thin film, we show that this transition to subdiffusive transport occurs at earlier times as disorder is increased. Our findings demonstrate that the mechanism of exciton transport depends strongly on the nanoscale morphology, which has wide implications for the design of excitonic materials and devices.

Programmable photonic crystal nanobeam cavities

We present dynamically reconfigurable photonic crystal nanobeam cavities, operating at ~1550 nm, that can be continuously and reversibly tuned over a 9.5 nm wavelength range. The devices are formed by two coupled nanobeam cavities, and the tuning is achieved by varying the lateral gap between the nanobeams. An electrostatic force, obtained by applying bias voltages directly to the nanobeams, is used to control the spacing between the nanobeams, which in turn results in tuning of the cavity resonance. The observed tuning trends were confirmed through simulations that modeled the electrostatic actuation as well as the optical resonances in our reconfigurable geometries.

Photonic crystal nanobeam lasers

We demonstrate room temperature photonic crystal lasers based on high-Q nanobeam cavities. L-L curve shows the lasing threshold of ∼0.6mW and the spontaneous emission factor larger than 0.3.

All optical reconfiguration of optomechanical filters

Reconfigurable optical filters are of great importance for applications in optical communication and information processing. Of particular interest are tuning techniques that take advantage of mechanical deformation of the devices, as they offer wider tuning range. Here we demonstrate reconfiguration of coupled photonic crystal nanobeam cavities by using optical gradient force induced mechanical actuation. Propagating waveguide modes that exist over a wide wavelength range are used to actuate the structures and control the resonance of localized cavity modes. Using this all-optical approach, more than 18 linewidths of tuning range is demonstrated. Using an on-chip temperature self-referencing method, we determine that 20% of the total tuning was due to optomechanical reconfiguration and the rest due to thermo-optic effects. By operating the device at frequencies higher than the thermal cutoff, we show high-speed operation dominated by just optomechanical effects. Independent control of mechanical and optical resonances of our structures is also demonstrated.

Submicrometer-wide amorphous and polycrystalline anatase TiO2 waveguides for microphotonic devices.

We demonstrate amorphous and polycrystalline anatase TiO(2) thin films and submicrometer-wide waveguides with promising optical properties for microphotonic devices. We deposit both amorphous and polycrystalline anatase TiO(2) using reactive sputtering and define waveguides using electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. For the amorphous TiO(2), we obtain propagation losses of 0.12 ± 0.02 dB/mm at 633 nm and 0.04 ± 0.01 dB/mm at 1550 nm in thin films and 2.6 ± 0.5 dB/mm at 633 nm and 0.4 ± 0.2 dB/mm at 1550 nm in waveguides. Using single-mode amorphous TiO(2) waveguides, we characterize microphotonic features including microbends and optical couplers. We show transmission of 780-nm light through microbends having radii down to 2 μm and variable signal splitting in microphotonic couplers with coupling lengths of 10 μm.

Coupled photonic crystal nanobeam cavities

We describe the design, fabrication, and spectroscopy of coupled, high quality (Q) factor silicon nanobeam photonic crystal cavities. We show that the single nanobeam cavity modes are coupled into even and odd superposition modes, and we simulate the frequency and Q factor as a function of nanobeam spacing, demonstrating that a differential wavelength shift of 70 nm between the two modes is possible while maintaining Q factors greater than 106. For both on substrate and freestanding nanobeams, we experimentally monitor the response of the even mode as the gap is varied, and measure Q factors as high as 2×105.

Integrated TiO2 resonators for visible photonics.

We demonstrate waveguide-coupled titanium dioxide (TiO(2) racetrack resonators with loaded quality factors of 2.2×10(4) for the visible wavelengths. The structures were fabricated in sputtered TiO(2) thin films on oxidized silicon substrates using standard top-down nanofabrication techniques, and passively probed in transmission measurements using a tunable red laser.

Fabrication and characterization of high-quality-factor silicon nitride nanobeam cavities

We present the fabrication and characterization of high-quality-factor (Q) Si3N4 photonic crystal nanobeam cavities at visible wavelengths for coupling to nitrogen-vacancy centers in a cavity QED system. Confocal microphotoluminescence analysis of the nanobeam cavities demonstrates quality factors up to Q ~ 55,000, which are limited by the resolution of our grating spectrometer. This is a 1-order-of-magnitude improvement over previous SiNx cavities at this important wavelength range. We also demonstrate coarse tuning of cavity resonances across 600-700 nm by lithographically scaling the size of fabricated devices.