No Arabic abstract
Designing integrated photonics, especially to leverage Kerr-nonlinear optics, requires accurate and precise knowledge of refractive index across the visible to infrared spectral ranges. Tantala (Ta_2O_5) is an emerging material platform for integrated photonics and nanophotonics that offers broadband ultralow loss, moderately high nonlinearity, and advantages for scalable and heterogeneous integration. We present refractive-index measurements on a thin film of tantala, and we explore the efficacy of this data for group-velocity dispersion (GVD) engineering with waveguide and ring-resonator devices. In particular, the observed spectral extent of supercontinuum generation in fabricated waveguides, and the wavelength dependence of free spectral range (FSR) in optical resonators provide a sensitive test of our integrated-photonics design process. Our work opens up new design possibilities with tantala, including with octave-spanning soliton microcombs.
Integrated photonics plays a central role in modern science and technology, enabling experiments from nonlinear science to quantum information, ultraprecise measurements and sensing, and advanced applications like data communication and signal processing. Optical materials with favorable properties are essential for nanofabrication of integrated-photonics devices. Here we describe a material for integrated nonlinear photonics, tantalum pentoxide (Ta$_2$O$_5$, hereafter tantala), which offers low intrinsic material stress, low optical loss, and efficient access to Kerr-nonlinear processes. We utilize >800-nm thick tantala films deposited via ion-beam sputtering on oxidized silicon wafers. The tantala films contain a low residual tensile stress of 38 MPa, and they offer a Kerr index $n_2$=6.2(23)$times10^{-19}$ m$^2$/W, which is approximately a factor of three higher than silicon nitride. We fabricate integrated nonlinear resonators and waveguides without the cracking challenges that are prevalent in stoichiometric silicon nitride. The tantala resonators feature an optical quality factor up to $3.8times10^6$, which enables us to generate ultrabroad-bandwidth Kerr-soliton frequency combs with low threshold power. Moreover, tantala waveguides enable supercontinuum generation across the near-infrared from low-energy, ultrafast seed pulses. Our work introduces a versatile material platform for integrated, low-loss nanophotonics that can be broadly applied and enable heterogeneous integration.
Over the past decade, remarkable advances have been realized in chip-based nonlinear photonic devices for classical and quantum applications in the near- and mid-infrared regimes. However, few demonstrations have been realized in the visible and near-visible regimes, primarily due to the large normal material group-velocity dispersion (GVD) that makes it challenging to phase match third-order parametric processes. In this paper, we show that exploiting dispersion engineering of higher-order waveguide modes provides waveguide dispersion that allows for small or anomalous GVD in the visible and near-visible regimes and phase matching of four-wave mixing processes. We illustrate the power of this concept by demonstrating in silicon nitride microresonators a near-visible modelocked Kerr frequency comb and a narrow-band photon-pair source compatible with Rb transitions. These realizations extend applications of nonlinear photonics towards the visible and near-visible regimes for applications in time and frequency metrology, spectral calibration, quantum information, and biomedical applications.
It has long been thought that normal group-velocity dispersion (GVD) cannot be produced in free space via angular dispersion. Indeed, conventional diffractive or dispersive components such as gratings or prisms produce only anomalous GVD. We identify the conditions that must be fulfilled by the angular dispersion introduced into a plane-wave pulse to yield normal GVD. We then utilize a pulsed-beam shaper capable of introducing arbitrary angular-dispersion profiles to symmetrically produce normal and anomalous GVD in free space, which are realized here on the same footing for the first time.
Scaling up linear-optics quantum computing will require multi-photon gates which are compact, phase-stable, exhibit excellent quantum interference, and have success heralded by the detection of ancillary photons. We investigate implementation of the optimal known gate design which meets these requirements: the Knill controlled-Z gate, implemented in integrated laser-written waveguide arrays. We show that device performance is more sensitive to the small deviations in the coupler reflectivity, arising due to the tolerance values of the fabrication method, than phase variations in the circuit. The mode fidelity was also shown to be less sensitive to reflectivity and phase errors than process fidelity. Our best device achieves a fidelity of 0.931+/-0.001 with the ideal 4x4 unitary circuit and a process fidelity of 0.680+/-0.005 with the ideal computational-basis process.
Gallium nitride (GaN) as a wide-band gap material has been widely used in solid-state lighting. Thanks to its high nonlinearity and high refractive index contrast, GaN-on-insulator (GaNOI) is also a promising platform for nonlinear optical applications. Despite its intriguing optical proprieties, nonlinear applications of GaN have rarely been studied due to the relatively high optical loss of GaN waveguides (2 dB/cm). In this letter, we report GaNOI microresonator with intrinsic quality factor over 2 million, corresponding to an optical loss of 0.26 dB/cm. Parametric oscillation threshold power as low as 8.8 mW is demonstrated, and the experimentally extracted nonlinear index of GaN at telecom wavelengths is estimated to be n2 = 1.2*10 -18 m2W-1, which is comparable with silicon. Single soliton generation in GaN is implemented by an auxiliary laser pumping scheme, so as to mitigate the high thermorefractive effect in GaN. The large intrinsic nonlinear refractive index, together with its broadband transparency window and high refractive index contrast, make GaNOI a most balanced platform for chip-scale nonlinear applications.