DURIP High-resolution optical and electrical detectors for nonlinear topological photonics
Abstract
Summary Nonlinear effects, in particular the Kerr effect, in ring resonators provide a compact route to the generation of nonlinearstates of light such as optical frequency combs (OFCs) in integrated photonic chips [1]. During the last few decades, advancements in the generation and detection of OFCs have enabled a wide range of applications ranging from timekeeping and virus detection to metrology and sensing [1, 5-8]. In addition to these classical applications, OFCs have recently emerged as an exciting platform for quantum applications such as enhanced sensing, secured communications, and meaningful quantum simulations and computation [9].These advancements in both classical and quantum nonlinear photonic technologies ultimately rely on integrated nanophotonic devices, such asphotonic ring resonators and waveguides, that can be used to generate and manipulate such nonlinear states of light in a compact and scalable manner. So far, the generation of OFCs has been primarily limitedto single-ring resonator platforms. Concurrently, recentyears have witnessed the emergence of a new photonic design paradigm, known as topological photonics, as a powerful tool for designing robust photonic circuit elements [3]. A key advantage of topological photonics is the emergence of unidirectional edge modes that are confined to the boundary of a system, and are remarkably robust against local disorder. Recently, based on the topological photonic design approach, theoretical works predicted the emergence of a diverse family of non-linear states of light such as OFCs andnested solitons in a topological lattice. Specifically, it was shown theoretically that these topological OFCs offer remarkable robustness against disorder, have a ten-fold higher generation efficiency, and host novel features such as #nestedness#, that is, each tooth of the comb is a mini-comb [2,3], opening up exciting opportunities for application of OFCs in both quantum and classical regimes.Recently, for the first time, we reported the generation of one of these topological nonlinear states, namely, a modulation-instability frequency comb which was observed in a lattice of hundreds of ring resonators [4]. We demonstrated that the lattice hosts topological edge states that exhibit fabrication-robust linear dispersion and spatial confinement at the boundary of the lattice. Uponoptical pumping of the topological edge band, these unique properties of the edge state lead to the generation of a frequency comb that is also spectrally confined within the edge band across 40 longitudinal modes. These results bring together the fields of topological photonics and optical frequency combs, providing an opportunity to explore the interplay between topology and nonlinear systems in a platform compatible with commercially available nanofabrication processes.In this DURIP proposal, we propose to upgrade our capabilities to enable the detection and analysis of unexplored nonlinear topological states oflight, including coherent topologicalsolitons and nested frequency combs. In particular, we plan to purchase (1) a high-resolution (spectral resolution > 1 picometer) optical spectrum analyzer (OSA) at telecom wavelength to enable the detection of fine structures of coherent nested topological OFCs and (2) a highly-sensitive electrical spectrum analyzer (ESA) for identification and noise analysis of low-noise mode-locked OFCs and solitons.In addition to improving our experimental capabilities for the detection and analysis of nonlinear topological states of light, in the future, these OSA and ESA systems will enable us to explore new physics of topological squeezed states of light as well as quantum simulations in synthetic frequency space, which will be detailed later in the Future Efforts section.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 24, 2025
- Source ID
- N000142512149
Entities
People
- Mohammad Hafezi
Organizations
- Office of Naval Research
- United States Navy
- University of Maryland