Cavity electro-optics in thin-film lithium niobate for efficient microwave-to-optical transduction
Abstract
Linking superconducting quantum devices to optical fibers via microwave-optical quantum transducers may enable large-scale quantum networks. For this application, transducers based on the Pockels electro-optic (EO) effect are promising for their direct conversion mechanism, high bandwidth, and potential for low-noise operation. However, previously demonstrated EO transducers require large optical pump power to overcome weak EO coupling and reach high efficiency. Here, we create an EO transducer in thin-film lithium niobate, a platform that provides low optical loss and strong EO coupling. We demonstrate on-chip transduction efficiencies of up to and of optical pump power. The transduction efficiency can be improved by further reducing the microwave resonator’s piezoelectric coupling to acoustic modes, increasing the optical resonator quality factor to previously demonstrated levels, and changing the electrode geometry for enhanced EO coupling. We expect that with further development, EO transducers in thin-film lithium niobate can achieve near-unity efficiency with low optical pump power.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Dec 07, 2020
- Source ID
- 10.1364/optica.397513
Entities
People
- Amirhassan Shams-Ansari
- Di Zhu
- Jeffrey Holzgrafe
- Karl K Berggren
- Marco Colangelo
- Marko Loncar
- Mian Zhang
- Neil Sinclair
- Yaowen Hu
Organizations
- National Science Foundation
- Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Department of Energy