Dynamical systems in nanophotonics: From energy
efficient modulators to light forces and optomechanics
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Citation
Popovic, M.A. et al. “Dynamical systems in nanophotonics: From
energy efficient modulators to light forces and optomechanics.”
LEOS Annual Meeting Conference Proceedings, 2009. LEOS
'09. IEEE. 2009. 577-578. © 2009, IEEE
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http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/LEOS.2009.5343120
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Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
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WV1 (Invited)
15.30 - 16.00
Dynamical Systems in Nanophotonics: from Energy Efficient
Modulators to Light Forces and Optomechanics
Miloš A. Popović1*, Peter T. Rakich1,2, Marcus S. Dahlem1, Charles W. Holzwarth1, Tymon Barwicz1,3,
Fuwan Gan1, Henry I. Smith1, Franz X. Kärtner1 and Erich P. Ippen1
1
Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Ave, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
2
Sandia National Laboratories, PO Box 5800, Albuquerque, NM 87185, USA
3
Present address: IBM T.J. Watson Research Center, Yorktown Heights, NY, USA
*
email: mpopovic@alum.mit.edu
Abstract: We demonstrate novel device concepts based on rigorous design of the dynamics of
resonant nanophotonic systems, such as dispersionless resonant switches and energy-efficient modulator architectures, slow-light cells, and nanomechanical photonic devices based on light forces.
Nanophotonic devices and circuits are enabling high-fidelity on-chip optical signal processing scalable to large
bandwidth and complexity in a small footprint. Dynamical (time-variant) nanophotonic systems, in which timedependent actuation is employed to vary resonance frequencies, Q’s, phase shifts or coupling ratios, offer a rich
design space for potential applications, from energy-efficient switches and modulators of importance for on-chip
interconnects and telecom/datacom applications, through resonant delay lines and dynamical slow light devices, to
new light-force based nanomechanical photonics with numerous potential applications and novel functions.
In the work reviewed here, we describe novel device concepts based on first-principles synthesis of dynamical
photonic systems, founded on the manipulation of resonances and interference. Dynamical manipulation of poles
and zeros of transmission requires control of the resonance frequency (real frequency) and of the Q (imaginary
frequency) of resonances [1]. One important telecom problem addressable by designs that make the judicious use of
both is hitless (dispersionless) wavelength tuning of reconfigurable tunable channel add-drop filters [1]. A
challenge with tunable add-drop filters has been that switching off filters through resonance frequency detuning has
large remaining dispersion that incurs signal degradation. Through dynamical tuning of a resonator into a
minimum-phase off state (that results in pole-zero cancellation), we demonstrated a resonant switchable-tunable
add-drop filter concept (Fig. 1) that simultaneously turns off both the amplitude and the phase response [1]. This
concept can be applied more generally in static and dynamical resonant system design to fully suppress a resonance.
Modulator design, where design goals are energy efficiency and speed, has also leveraged resonant structures.
Considerable recent work in the field has shown improved efficiency of resonant over broadband designs. We
propose a first-principles design approach, based on pole-zero synthesis of dynamical systems, and show new
modulator topologies that simultaneously have several optimal properties (Fig. 2). For designs where resonance
frequency is modulated, pole-zero modulators [2] allow the highest sensitivity (energy efficiency), at the same time
as perfect extinction by design. Furthermore, the proposed designs show that even modulators that use lossy
modulation (like the carrier plasma effect in semiconductors, where refraction is accompanied by absorption) can be
designed to provide “lossless”, fully 100%-to-0 modulation, in principle [2]. Generalization to higher-order
dynamical resonators is shown, along with their utility for more advanced functions [2].
We have based the design of switches on design of minimum-phase resonance dynamics (which minimizes
resonant group delay). Equally important applications may be derived through the synthesis of maximum-phase
resonant responses, in particular in resonant delay lines, dispersion compensating filters, and on-chip slow-light
structures. For example, we have proposed [3] and experimentally demonstrated [4] loop-coupled resonant cavities
and the synthesis of transmission response zeros through control of their geometry. Through engineering of the
response zeros, we demonstrated optimally sharp resonant filters [3,4]. In addition, filters with square amplitude
response, and linear phase over more than 80% of the passband can be designed [3], hence circumventing the
Kramers-Kronig constraint that implies an amplitude-dispersion tradeoff in conventional coupled-cavity filters.
Design of dynamical photonic systems is also central to a new class of nanophotonic devices based on light
forces [8]. Combining nanomechanics and nanophotonics, optical forces resulting from interacting optical
resonators can scale to large values as optical modes shrink to nanometer-scale dimensions, and cause motion of the
nanomechanical parts with accompanying optical effects using modest laser excitation. Such forces can be
harnessed in fundamentally new ways when optical elements are free to move and adapt to them through exchange
of optical and mechanical energy [6]. Recent work (Povinelli et al., 2005; etc.) has pointed out substantial forces in
evanescently coupled waveguides and resonators. We proposed an approach to obtain very strong optical forces, by
combining strong confinement found in high index contrast waveguides with high-Q resonant enhancement in
nanophotonic resonators through strongly coupled dual-cavity resonators [6]. This approach predicted microNewton
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(a)
(b)
(c)
Fig. 1. Dynamical nanophotonic systems based on pole-zero manipulation: (a-b) dispersionless (truly hitless) tunable wavelength switch based
on microrings [1]; (c) flat-top, dispersionless filters circumvent Kramers-Kronig amplitude-dispersion tradeoff using loop-coupled resonators [3].
Fig. 2. Energy efficient modulator architectures based on rigorous pole-zero design of dynamical systems [2].(a) Pole-zero modulator topology
and (b) schematic, enabling (c) full 1-to-0 modulation at the same time as WDM cascadability, and minimal resonance shift; (d) pole-zero plot.
Fig. 3. Nanomechanical photonics based on light forces in resonators: (a) dual-resonator structure and gradient light forces enable large (microNewton) forces [6], ultrawide tuning [6-7], and optomechanical “memory”. (b) Light forces also enable a new class of self-adaptive photonics
with physics-based intrinsic feedback control [6-7] that may alleviate extremely large dimensional and thermal sensitivities of nanophotonics.
level forces with small laser powers [6], recently confirmed experimentally by a number of research groups. We
describe an array of novel functionalities from low-energy switching and tuning [5,6] to self-adaptive photonics
based on intrinsic feedback control [6,7] for temperature and dimensional-error insensitive nanophotonic circuits.
References
[1] M.A. Popović, T. Barwicz, F. Gan, M.S. Dahlem, C.W. Holzwarth, P.T. Rakich, H.I. Smith, E.P. Ippen, et al., “Transparent wavelength
switching of resonant filters,” Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), Baltimore, MD, May 10, 2007, postdeadline paper CPDA2.
[2] M.A. Popović, “Optimally efficient resonance-tuned optical modulators,” Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), Baltimore,
MD, May 2009, paper CTuV6.
[3] M.A. Popović, “Sharply-defined optical filters and dispersionless delay lines based on loop-coupled resonators and ‘negative’ coupling,”
Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), Baltimore, MD, May 6-11, 2007, paper CThP6.
[4] M.A. Popović, T. Barwicz, P.T. Rakich, M.S. Dahlem, et al., “Experimental demonstration of loop-coupled microring resonators for
optimally sharp optical filters,” Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics (CLEO), San Jose, CA, May 4-9, 2008, paper CTuNN3.
[5] P.T. Rakich, M.A. Popović, et al., “Ultrawide tuning of photonic microcavities via evanescent field perturbation,” Opt. Lett. 31, 1241 (2006).
[6] P.T. Rakich, M.A. Popović, M. Soljačić and E.P. Ippen, “Trapping, corralling and spectral bonding of optical resonances through optically
induced potentials,” Nature Photonics 1, 658-665 (Nov. 2007).
[7] M.A. Popović and P.T. Rakich, “Optonanomechanical Self-Adaptive Photonic Devices based on Light Forces: A Path to Robust High-IndexContrast Nanophotonic Circuits,” in Proceedings of the SPIE (Photonics West OPTO2009), Jan 2009, paper 7219-10.
[8] P.T. Rakich, M.A. Popović and Z. Wang, “General Treatment of Optical Forces and Potentials in Mechanically Variable …,” submitted.
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