skip to main content


Title: Metasurface-stabilized optical microcavities
Abstract

Cavities concentrate light and enhance its interaction with matter. Confining to microscopic volumes is necessary for many applications but space constraints in such cavities limit the design freedom. Here we demonstrate stable optical microcavities by counteracting the phase evolution of the cavity modes using an amorphous Silicon metasurface as cavity end mirror. Careful design allows us to limit the metasurface scattering losses at telecom wavelengths to less than 2% and using a distributed Bragg reflector as metasurface substrate ensures high reflectivity. Our demonstration experimentally achieves telecom-wavelength microcavities with quality factors of up to 4600, spectral resonance linewidths below 0.4 nm, and mode volumes below$$2.7{\lambda }^{3}$$2.7λ3. The method introduces freedom to stabilize modes with arbitrary transverse intensity profiles and to design cavity-enhanced hologram modes. Our approach introduces the nanoscopic light control capabilities of dielectric metasurfaces to cavity electrodynamics and is industrially scalable using semiconductor manufacturing processes.

 
more » « less
NSF-PAR ID:
10399175
Author(s) / Creator(s):
; ; ; ; ; ;
Publisher / Repository:
Nature Publishing Group
Date Published:
Journal Name:
Nature Communications
Volume:
14
Issue:
1
ISSN:
2041-1723
Format(s):
Medium: X
Sponsoring Org:
National Science Foundation
More Like this
  1. Abstract

    We investigate electroabsorption (EA) in organic semiconductor microcavities to understand whether strong light-matter coupling non-trivially alters their nonlinear optical [$${\chi }^{(3)}\left(\omega,{{{{\mathrm{0,0}}}}}\right)$$χ(3)ω,0, 0] response. Focusing on strongly-absorbing squaraine (SQ) molecules dispersed in a wide-gap host matrix, we find that classical transfer matrix modeling accurately captures the EA response of low concentration SQ microcavities with a vacuum Rabi splitting of$$\hslash \Omega \approx 200$$Ω200meV, but fails for high concentration cavities with$$\hslash \Omega \approx 420$$Ω420meV. Rather than new physics in the ultrastrong coupling regime, however, we attribute the discrepancy at high SQ concentration to a nearly dark H-aggregate state below the SQ exciton transition, which goes undetected in the optical constant dispersion on which the transfer matrix model is based, but nonetheless interacts with and enhances the EA response of the lower polariton mode. These results indicate that strong coupling can be used to manipulate EA (and presumably other optical nonlinearities) from organic microcavities by controlling the energy of polariton modes relative to other states in the system, but it does not alter the intrinsic optical nonlinearity of the organic semiconductor inside the cavity.

     
    more » « less
  2. Abstract

    Analog quantum simulators rely on programmable and scalable quantum devices to emulate Hamiltonians describing various physical phenomenon. Photonic coupled cavity arrays are a promising alternative platform for realizing such simulators, due to their potential for scalability, small size, and high-temperature operability. However, programmability and nonlinearity in photonic cavities remain outstanding challenges. Here, using a silicon photonic coupled cavity array made up of$$8$$8high quality factor ($$Q$$Qup to$$\, \sim 7.1\times {10}^{4}$$~7.1×104) resonators and equipped with specially designed thermo-optic island heaters for independent control of cavities, we demonstrate a programmable photonic cavity array in the telecom regime, implementing tight-binding Hamiltonians with access to the full eigenenergy spectrum. We report a$$\sim 50\%$$~50%reduction in the thermal crosstalk between neighboring sites of the cavity array compared to traditional heaters, and then present a control scheme to program the cavity array to a given tight-binding Hamiltonian. The ability to independently program high-Q photonic cavities, along with the compatibility of silicon photonics to high volume manufacturing opens new opportunities for scalable quantum simulation using telecom regime infrared photons.

     
    more » « less
  3. Abstract

    The electricE1 and magneticM1 dipole responses of the$$N=Z$$N=Znucleus$$^{24}$$24Mg were investigated in an inelastic photon scattering experiment. The 13.0 MeV electrons, which were used to produce the unpolarised bremsstrahlung in the entrance channel of the$$^{24}$$24Mg($$\gamma ,\gamma ^{\prime }$$γ,γ) reaction, were delivered by the ELBE accelerator of the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf. The collimated bremsstrahlung photons excited one$$J^{\pi }=1^-$$Jπ=1-, four$$J^{\pi }=1^+$$Jπ=1+, and six$$J^{\pi }=2^+$$Jπ=2+states in$$^{24}$$24Mg. De-excitation$$\gamma $$γrays were detected using the four high-purity germanium detectors of the$$\gamma $$γELBE setup, which is dedicated to nuclear resonance fluorescence experiments. In the energy region up to 13.0 MeV a total$$B(M1)\uparrow = 2.7(3)~\mu _N^2$$B(M1)=2.7(3)μN2is observed, but this$$N=Z$$N=Znucleus exhibits only marginalE1 strength of less than$$\sum B(E1)\uparrow \le 0.61 \times 10^{-3}$$B(E1)0.61×10-3 e$$^2 \, $$2fm$$^2$$2. The$$B(\varPi 1, 1^{\pi }_i \rightarrow 2^+_1)/B(\varPi 1, 1^{\pi }_i \rightarrow 0^+_{gs})$$B(Π1,1iπ21+)/B(Π1,1iπ0gs+)branching ratios in combination with the expected results from the Alaga rules demonstrate thatKis a good approximative quantum number for$$^{24}$$24Mg. The use of the known$$\rho ^2(E0, 0^+_2 \rightarrow 0^+_{gs})$$ρ2(E0,02+0gs+)strength and the measured$$B(M1, 1^+ \rightarrow 0^+_2)/B(M1, 1^+ \rightarrow 0^+_{gs})$$B(M1,1+02+)/B(M1,1+0gs+)branching ratio of the 10.712 MeV$$1^+$$1+level allows, in a two-state mixing model, an extraction of the difference$$\varDelta \beta _2^2$$Δβ22between the prolate ground-state structure and shape-coexisting superdeformed structure built upon the 6432-keV$$0^+_2$$02+level.

     
    more » « less
  4. Abstract

    The elliptic flow$$(v_2)$$(v2)of$${\textrm{D}}^{0}$$D0mesons from beauty-hadron decays (non-prompt$${\textrm{D}}^{0})$$D0)was measured in midcentral (30–50%) Pb–Pb collisions at a centre-of-mass energy per nucleon pair$$\sqrt{s_{\textrm{NN}}} = 5.02$$sNN=5.02 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The$${\textrm{D}}^{0}$$D0mesons were reconstructed at midrapidity$$(|y|<0.8)$$(|y|<0.8)from their hadronic decay$$\mathrm {D^0 \rightarrow K^-\uppi ^+}$$D0K-π+, in the transverse momentum interval$$2< p_{\textrm{T}} < 12$$2<pT<12 GeV/c. The result indicates a positive$$v_2$$v2for non-prompt$${{\textrm{D}}^{0}}$$D0mesons with a significance of 2.7$$\sigma $$σ. The non-prompt$${{\textrm{D}}^{0}}$$D0-meson$$v_2$$v2is lower than that of prompt non-strange D mesons with 3.2$$\sigma $$σsignificance in$$2< p_\textrm{T} < 8~\textrm{GeV}/c$$2<pT<8GeV/c, and compatible with the$$v_2$$v2of beauty-decay electrons. Theoretical calculations of beauty-quark transport in a hydrodynamically expanding medium describe the measurement within uncertainties.

     
    more » « less
  5. Abstract

    For everyd3d\geq 3, we construct a noncompact smooth 𝑑-dimensional Riemannian manifold with strictly positive sectional curvature without isoperimetric sets for any volume below 1.We construct a similar example also for the relative isoperimetric problem in (unbounded) convex sets inRd\mathbb{R}^{d}.The examples we construct have nondegenerate asymptotic cone.The dimensional constraintd3d\geq 3is sharp.Our examples exhibit nonexistence of isoperimetric sets only for small volumes; indeed, in nonnegatively curved spaces with nondegenerate asymptotic cones, isoperimetric sets with large volumes always exist.This is the first instance of noncollapsed nonnegatively curved space without isoperimetric sets.

     
    more » « less