Slow thermo-optomechanical pulsations in suspended one-dimensional photonic crystal nanocavities

Year: 2020

Authors: Fonseca P., Alda I., Marino F., Cuadrado A., D’Ambrosio V., Gieseler J., Quidant R.

Autors Affiliation: ICFO Inst Ciencies Foton, Mediterranean Technol Pk, Barcelona 08860, Spain; Ist Nazl Ottica, Via Sansone 1, I-50019 Florence, Italy; Univ Rey Juan Carlos, Escuela Ciencias Expt & Tecnol, Madrid 28933, Spain; Univ Napoli Federico II, Complesso Univ Monte S Angelo, Dipartimento Fis, Via Cintia, I-80126 Naples, Italy; ICREA Inst Catalana Recerca & Estud Avancats, Barcelona 08010, Spain; Swiss Fed Inst Technol, Dept Mech & Proc Engn, Nanophoton Syst Lab, CH-8092 Zurich, Switzerland.

Abstract: We investigate the nonlinear optical response of suspended one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal nanocavities fabricated on a silicon nitride chip. Strong thermo-optical nonlinearities are demonstrated for input powers as low as 2 μW and a self-sustained pulsing regime is shown to emerge with periodicity of several seconds. As the input power and laser wavelength are varied the temporal patterns change in period, duty cycle, and shape. This dynamics is attributed to the multiple timescale competition between thermo-optical and thermo-optomechanical effects and closely resembles the relaxation oscillations states found in mathematical models of neuronal activity. We introduce a simplified model that reproduces all the experimental observations and allows us to explain them in terms of the properties of a 1D critical manifold which governs the slow evolution of the system.

Journal/Review: PHYSICAL REVIEW A

Volume: 102 (5)      Pages from: 053518-1  to: 053518-8

More Information: The authors acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council through Grant QnanoMECA (CoG-64790), Fundacio Privada Cellex, CERCA Programme/Generalitat de Catalunya, the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness through the Severo Ochoa Programme for Centres of Excellence in R&D, and the Spanish Ministry of Education, Culture and Sport (Scholarship FPU14/02111).
KeyWords: Neuronal dynamics, nonlinar dynamics, photonic crystals, nonlinear optics
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevA.102.053518

Citations: 4
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