Ultimate fast optical switching of a photonic microcavity

Description

Exciting prospects arise when photonic nanostructures are switched on ultrafast timescales. Of particular interest is the ultrafast switching of the resonance of a cavity wherein photons are stored for a long time in a tiny volume. Such switching permits the quantum electrodynamical manipulation of the stored photons, or the optical properties of a source embedded in the cavity. Here we have switched the resonance in the telecom range of an ultrafast (τcav=0.9 ps) cavity by the instantaneous electronic Kerr effect. Essential steps in our experiments are fabricating a dedicated cavity with a resonance in the telecom range and employing low-energy pump photons. This switching mechanism potentially allows beyond-THz modulation rates that could be of use for extremely fast datamodulation.

Period	10 Mar 2010
Event title	DPG Frühjahrstagung 2010 Hannover: (DPG Spring Meeting)
Event type	Conference
Organiser	Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft
Location	Hannover, GermanyShow on map
Degree of Recognition	International