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Breaking the delay-bandwidth limit in a photonic structure

Nature Physics volume 3, pages 406–410 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

Storing light on-chip, which requires that the speed of light be significantly slowed down, is crucial for enabling photonic circuits on-chip. Ultraslow propagation1,2,3 and even stopping4,5 of light have been demonstrated using the electromagnetically induced transparency effect in atomic systems1,3,4,5 and the coherent population oscillation effect in solid-state systems2. The wavelengths and bandwidths of light in such devices are tightly constrained by the property of the material absorption lines, which limits their application in information technologies. Various slow-light devices based on photonic structures have also been demonstrated6,7,8,9,10; however, these devices suffer a fundamental trade-off between the transmission bandwidth and the optical delay. It has been shown theoretically11,12,13 that stopping light on-chip and thereby breaking the fundamental link between the delay and the bandwidth can be achieved by ultrafast tuning of photonic structures. Using this mechanism, here we report the first demonstration of storing light using photonic structures on-chip, with storage times longer than the bandwidth-determined photon lifetime of the static device. The release time of the pulse is externally controlled.

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Figure 1: The device structure and the storing light operation.
Figure 2: Output waveforms with different storage times.
Figure 3: The temporal decay of optical energy stored in the cavity.
Figure 4: The spectra of the optical output.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank S. Fan of Stanford University for fruitful discussions. This work was carried out in part at the Cornell Nano-Scale Science & Technology Facility (CNF) and the Cornell Center for Nanoscale Systems (CNS).

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  1. School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, 411 Phillips Hall, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA

    Qianfan Xu, Po Dong & Michal Lipson

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  1. Qianfan Xu
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  2. Po Dong
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  3. Michal Lipson
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Correspondence to Michal Lipson.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Xu, Q., Dong, P. & Lipson, M. Breaking the delay-bandwidth limit in a photonic structure. Nature Phys 3, 406–410 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphys600

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