We implement a 40-pulse, time-multiplexed optical parametric oscillator in thin-film lithium niobate nanophotonics and demonstrate the independent phase behavior of the pulses in the degenerate and non-degenerate regimes, enabling scalable optical computers and complex simulators. more »« less
We demonstrate spectral phase transitions in dual-pumped Si3N4nanophotonic Kerr optical parametric oscillators with anomalous dispersion. Through pump-power modulation, we observe real-time switching between a near-degenerate signal (0-FSR separation) and non-degenerate signals (4-FSR separation).
McKenna, Timothy P.; Stokowski, Hubert S.; Ansari, Vahid; Mishra, Jatadhari; Jankowski, Marc; Sarabalis, Christopher J.; Herrmann, Jason F.; Langrock, Carsten; Fejer, Martin M.; Safavi-Naeini, Amir H.
(, Nature Communications)
Abstract Second-order nonlinear optical processes convert light from one wavelength to another and generate quantum entanglement. Creating chip-scale devices to efficiently control these interactions greatly increases the reach of photonics. Existing silicon-based photonic circuits utilize the third-order optical nonlinearity, but an analogous integrated platform for second-order nonlinear optics remains an outstanding challenge. Here we demonstrate efficient frequency doubling and parametric oscillation with a threshold of tens of micro-watts in an integrated thin-film lithium niobate photonic circuit. We achieve degenerate and non-degenerate operation of the parametric oscillator at room temperature and tune its emission over one terahertz by varying the pump frequency by hundreds of megahertz. Finally, we observe cascaded second-order processes that result in parametric oscillation. These resonant second-order nonlinear circuits will form a crucial part of the emerging nonlinear and quantum photonics platforms.
Okawachi, Yoshitomo; Yu, Mengjie; Jang, J. K.; Ji, Xingchen; Zhao, Yun; Lipson, Michal; Gaeta, Alexander L.
(, Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics)
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(Ed.)
We demonstrate reconfigurable all-optical coupling between two degenerate optical parametric oscillators in silicon-nitride microresonators. We show in-phase and out-of-phase operation which is achieved at a fast regeneration rate of 400 kHz with a large phase tolerance.
Synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) are highly efficient sources of long-wavelength pulses and nonclassical light, making them invaluable for applications in spectroscopy, metrology, multi-photon microscopy, and quantum computation. Typical systems based on free-space cavities either operate non-degenerately, which limits their efficiency, or use active feedback control to achieve degenerate operation, which limits these systems to dedicated low-noise environments. In this work, we demonstrate a femtosecond monolithically integrated OPO. In contrast with bulk OPOs, our monolithic 10 GHz cavity, based on reverse-proton-exchanged lithium niobate, operates stably without active locking. By detuning the repetition rate of the free-running pump laser from the cavity free spectral range, we control the intracavity pulse dynamics and observe many of the operating regimes previously encountered in free-space degenerate OPOs, such as box-pulsing and quadratic bright-dark solitons (simultons), in addition to non-degenerate operation. When operated in the simulton regime and pumped with 125 fs pulses at 1 µm, this monolithic OPO chip outputs broadband sech2pulses (63 nm, 3 dB) with tens of milliwatts of average power.
Abstract Driven nonlinear resonators provide a fertile ground for phenomena related to phase transitions far from equilibrium, which can open opportunities unattainable in their linear counterparts. Here, we show that optical parametric oscillators (OPOs) can undergo second-order phase transitions in the spectral domain between degenerate and non-degenerate regimes. This abrupt change in the spectral response follows a square-root dependence around the critical point, exhibiting high sensitivity to parameter variation akin to systems around an exceptional point. We experimentally demonstrate such a phase transition in a quadratic OPO. We show that the divergent susceptibility of the critical point is accompanied by spontaneous symmetry breaking and distinct phase noise properties in the two regimes, indicating the importance of a beyond nonlinear bifurcation interpretation. We also predict the occurrence of first-order spectral phase transitions in coupled OPOs. Our results on non-equilibrium spectral behaviors can be utilized for enhanced sensing, advanced computing, and quantum information processing.
@article{osti_10544740,
place = {Country unknown/Code not available},
title = {40-Pulse Time-Multiplexed Nanophotonic Optical Parametric Oscillator},
url = {https://par.nsf.gov/biblio/10544740},
DOI = {10.1364/CLEO_SI.2023.SW3L.4},
abstractNote = {We implement a 40-pulse, time-multiplexed optical parametric oscillator in thin-film lithium niobate nanophotonics and demonstrate the independent phase behavior of the pulses in the degenerate and non-degenerate regimes, enabling scalable optical computers and complex simulators.},
journal = {},
publisher = {Optica Publishing Group},
author = {Gray, Robert M and Sekine, Ryoto and Ledezma, Luis and Roy, Arkadev and Marandi, Alireza},
}
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