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Published July 28, 2022 | Supplemental Material + Submitted
Journal Article Open

Femtojoule femtosecond all-optical switching in lithium niobate nanophotonics

Abstract

Optical nonlinear functions are crucial for various applications in integrated photonics, including all-optical information processing, photonic neural networks and on-chip ultrafast light sources. However, the weak native nonlinearity of most nanophotonic platforms has imposed barriers for such functions by necessitating large driving energies, high-Q cavities or integration with other materials with stronger nonlinearity. Here we effectively utilize the strong and instantaneous quadratic nonlinearity of lithium niobate nanowaveguides for the realization of cavity-free all-optical switching. By simultaneous engineering of the dispersion and quasi-phase matching, we design and demonstrate a nonlinear splitter that can achieve ultralow switching energies down to 80 fJ, featuring a fastest switching time of ~46 fs and a lowest energy–time product of 3.7 × 10⁻²⁷ J s in integrated photonics. Our results can enable on-chip ultrafast and energy-efficient all-optical information processing, computing systems and light sources.

Additional Information

© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited 2022. Received 30 August 2021; Accepted 22 June 2022; Published 28 July 2022. Device nanofabrication was performed at the Kavli Nanoscience Institute (KNI) at Caltech. We thank K. Vahala and C. Yang for loaning equipment. We also thank J.-H. Bahng, R. Briggs and M.-G. Suh for assistance with the fabrication development process. A.M. gratefully acknowledges support from ARO grant no. W911NF-18-1-0285, NSF grants nos. 1846273 and 1918549, AFOSR award no. FA9550-20-1-0040 and NASA/JPL. We thank NTT Research for financial and technical support. Data availability: The data that support the plots within this paper are available at https://figshare.com/s/6fb22ae146577d1ac7c0. Code availability: The computer code used to perform the nonlinear simulations in this paper is available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. These authors contributed equally: Qiushi Guo, Ryoto Sekine, Luis Ledezma. Contributions: Q.G. and A.M. conceived the project. Q.G. fabricated the devices and performed the measurements, with assistance from R.S., R.N., S.J. and R.M.G. L.L. developed the single-envelope simulation tool. L.L., D.J.D. and A.R. contributed to the design of the device. Q.G. and L.L. analysed the experimental results and performed the simulations. L.L. performed the periodic poling. Q.G. wrote the manuscript, with input from all other authors. A.M. supervised the project. Competing interests: Q.G. and A.M. are inventors on a patent application (US patent application no. 17/500,425) that covers the concept and implementation of the all-optical switch described here. The remaining authors declare no competing interests. Peer review information: Nature Photonics thanks the anonymous reviewers for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Submitted - 2107.09906.pdf

Supplemental Material - 41566_2022_1044_MOESM1_ESM.pdf

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Created:
August 20, 2023
Modified:
October 23, 2023