skip to main content


Title: Electro-optic interface for ultrasensitive intracavity electric field measurements at microwave and terahertz frequencies

Electro-optic quantum coherent interfaces map the amplitude and phase of a quantum signal directly to the phase or intensity of a probe beam. At terahertz frequencies, a fundamental challenge is not only to sense such weak signals (due to a weak coupling with a probe in the near-infrared) but also to resolve them in the time domain. Cavity confinement of both light fields can increase the interaction and achieve strong coupling. Using this approach, current realizations are limited to low microwave frequencies. Alternatively, in bulk crystals, electro-optic sampling was shown to reach quantum-level sensitivity of terahertz waves. Yet, the coupling strength was extremely weak. Here, we propose an on-chip architecture that concomitantly provides subcycle temporal resolution and an extreme sensitivity to sense terahertz intracavity fields below 20 V/m. We use guided femtosecond pulses in the near-infrared and a confinement of the terahertz wave to a volume ofVTHz∼<#comment/>10−<#comment/>9(λ<#comment/>THz/2)3in combination with ultraperformant organic molecules (r33=170pm/V) and accomplish a record-high single-photon electro-optic coupling rate ofgeo=2π<#comment/>×<#comment/>0.043GHz, 10,000 times higher than in recent reports of sensing vacuum field fluctuations in bulk media. Via homodyne detection implemented directly on chip, the interaction results into an intensity modulation of the femtosecond pulses. The single-photon cooperativity isC0=1.6×<#comment/>10−<#comment/>8, and the multiphoton cooperativity isC=0.002at room temperature. We show><#comment/>70dBdynamic range in intensity at 500 ms integration under irradiation with a weak coherent terahertz field. Similar devices could be employed in future measurements of quantum states in the terahertz at the standard quantum limit, or for entanglement of subsystems on subcycle temporal scales, such as terahertz and near-infrared quantum bits.

 
more » « less
NSF-PAR ID:
10149249
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Optical Society of America
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Optica
Volume:
7
Issue:
5
ISSN:
2334-2536
Page Range / eLocation ID:
Article No. 498
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. We report on spectroscopic measurements on the4f76s28S7/2∘<#comment/>→<#comment/>4f7(8S∘<#comment/>)6s6p(1P∘<#comment/>)8P9/2transition in neutral europium-151 and europium-153 at 459.4 nm. The center of gravity frequencies for the 151 and 153 isotopes, reported for the first time in this paper, to our knowledge, were found to be 652,389,757.16(34) MHz and 652,386,593.2(5) MHz, respectively. The hyperfine coefficients for the6s6p(1P∘<#comment/>)8P9/2state were found to beA(151)=−<#comment/>228.84(2)MHz,B(151)=226.9(5)MHzandA(153)=−<#comment/>101.87(6)MHz,B(153)=575.4(1.5)MHz, which all agree with previously published results except for A(153), which shows a small discrepancy. The isotope shift is found to be 3163.8(6) MHz, which also has a discrepancy with previously published results.

     
    more » « less
  2. In terahertz (THz) photonics, there is an ongoing effort to develop thin, compact devices such as dielectric photonic crystal (PhC) slabs with desirable light–matter interactions. However, previous works in THz PhC slabs have been limited to rigid substrates with thicknesses∼<#comment/>100sof micrometers. Dielectric PhC slabs have been shown to possess in-plane modes that are excited by external radiation to produce sharp guided-mode resonances with minimal absorption for applications in sensors, optics, and lasers. Here we confirm the existence of guided resonances in a membrane-type THz PhC slab with subwavelength (λ<#comment/>0/6−<#comment/>λ<#comment/>0/12) thicknesses of flexible dielectric polyimide films. The transmittance of the guided resonances was measured for different structural parameters of the unit cell. Furthermore, we exploited the flexibility of the samples to modulate the guided modes for a bend angle ofθ<#comment/>≥<#comment/>5∘<#comment/>, confirmed experimentally by the suppression of these modes. The mechanical flexibility of the device allows for an additional degree of freedom in system design for high-speed communications, soft wearable photonics, and implantable medical devices.

     
    more » « less
  3. Thin-film lithium-niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) has emerged as a superior integrated-photonics platform for linear, nonlinear, and electro-optics. Here we combine quasi-phase-matching, dispersion engineering, and tight mode confinement to realize nonlinear parametric processes with both high efficiency and wide wavelength tunability. On a millimeter-long, Z-cut LNOI waveguide, we demonstrate efficient (1900±<#comment/>500%<#comment/>W−<#comment/>1cm−<#comment/>2) and highly tunable (−<#comment/>1.71nm/K) second-harmonic generation from 1530 to 1583 nm by type-0 quasi-phase-matching. Our technique is applicable to optical harmonic generation, quantum light sources, frequency conversion, and many other photonic information processes across visible to mid-IR spectral bands.

     
    more » « less
  4. Plasmonic lasers suffer from low output power and divergent beams due to their subwavelength metallic cavities. We developed a phase-locking scheme for such lasers to significantly enhance their radiative efficiency and beam quality. An array of metallic microcavities is longitudinally coupled through traveling plasmon waves, which leads to radiation in a single spectral mode and a diffraction limited single-lobed beam in the surface normal direction. We implemented our scheme for terahertz plasmonic quantum-cascade lasers (QCLs) and measured peak output power in excess of2Wfor a single-mode3.3THzQCL radiating in a narrow single-lobed beam, when operated at58Kin a compact Stirling cooler. We thereby demonstrated an order of magnitude increase in power and thirty-times higher average intensity for monolithic single-mode terahertz QCLs compared to prior work. The number of photons radiated from the cavity outnumber those absorbed within its claddings and semiconductor medium, which constitutes><#comment/>50%<#comment/>radiative efficiency and is significantly greater than that achieved for previous single-mode mid-infrared or terahertz QCLs.

     
    more » « less
  5. The use of multispectral geostationary satellites to study aquatic ecosystems improves the temporal frequency of observations and mitigates cloud obstruction, but no operational capability presently exists for the coastal and inland waters of the United States. The Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) on the current iteration of the Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellites, termed theRSeries (GOES-R), however, provides sub-hourly imagery and the opportunity to overcome this deficit and to leverage a large repository of existing GOES-R aquatic observations. The fulfillment of this opportunity is assessed herein using a spectrally simplified, two-channel aquatic algorithm consistent with ABI wave bands to estimate the diffuse attenuation coefficient for photosynthetically available radiation,Kd(PAR). First, anin situABI dataset was synthesized using a globally representative dataset of above- and in-water radiometric data products. Values ofKd(PAR)were estimated by fitting the ratio of the shortest and longest visible wave bands from thein situABI dataset to coincident,in situKd(PAR)data products. The algorithm was evaluated based on an iterative cross-validation analysis in which 80% of the dataset was randomly partitioned for fitting and the remaining 20% was used for validation. The iteration producing the median coefficient of determination (R2) value (0.88) resulted in a root mean square difference of0.319m−<#comment/>1, or 8.5% of the range in the validation dataset. Second, coincident mid-day images of central and southern California from ABI and from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) were compared using Google Earth Engine (GEE). GEE default ABI reflectance values were adjusted based on a near infrared signal. Matchups between the ABI and MODIS imagery indicated similar spatial variability (R2=0.60) between ABI adjusted blue-to-red reflectance ratio values and MODIS default diffuse attenuation coefficient for spectral downward irradiance at 490 nm,Kd(490), values. This work demonstrates that if an operational capability to provide ABI aquatic data products was realized, the spectral configuration of ABI would potentially support a sub-hourly, visible aquatic data product that is applicable to water-mass tracing and physical oceanography research.

     
    more » « less