Laser-rate-equation description of optomechanical oscillators.

We develop a set of laser rate equations that accurately describes mechanical amplification in optomechanical oscillators driven by photothermal or radiation pressure forces. In the process we introduce a set of parameters describing gain, stored energy, slope efficiency, and saturation power of the mechanical laser. We identify the three-phonon parametric interactions as a microscopic mechanism enabling self-oscillation. Our theory shows remarkable agreement with our experimental data, demonstrating that optomechanical self-oscillation is essentially a "phonon lasing" process in which an optical pump generates coherent acoustic phonons.

Micromechanical photothermal spectroscopy of trace gases using functionalized polymers.

We demonstrate a novel method to spectroscopically detect and identify trace gases. Micromechanical photothermal spectroscopy (MPS) with functionalized sorbent materials provides trace gas spectra in an optical interaction length of only a few micrometers. We use microcavity interferometry to read out displacements as low as 25 fm/√Hz, heating as low as 200 pW/√Hz, and analyte concentrations as low as 65 parts-per-billion for the nerve agent simulant DMMP. MPS integrated with functional materials represents an important new tool in chip-scale optical sensing.

Enhanced electro-optic phase shifts in suspended waveguides.

We demonstrate enhanced electro-optic phase shifts in suspended InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum well waveguides compared to attached waveguides. The enhancement stems from an improved overlap between the optical mode and the multiple quantum well layers in thin waveguides when the semiconductor material beneath the waveguide is selectively etched. The measured voltage length product is 0.41 V-cm and the measured propagation loss is 2.3 +/- 0.7 dB/cm for the TE mode in the optical L-band.

Suspended AlGaAs waveguides for tunable difference frequency generation in mid-infrared.

A birefringent phase-matching scheme for difference-frequency generation in a slotted air-clad waveguide with a tunable gap is proposed and theoretically analyzed. A tunability of 300 cm(-1) and an efficiency of 400 W(-1) cm(-2) is predicted.

A microelectromechanically tunable asymmetric Fabry-Perot quantum well modulator at 1.55 microm.

Placing a quantum well modulator in an asymmetric Fabry- Perot cavity enables significantly higher contrast ratios than are possible in a conventional surface-normal quantum well modulator. However, fixed-cavity asymmetric Fabry-Perot quantum well modulators require extremely precise and uniform crystal growth and are sensitive to small fluctuations in temperature or angle of incidence. Here, we experimentally demonstrate an InP-based microelectromechanically tunable asymmetric Fabry-Perot quantum well modulator that operates in the optical C-band. By actuating a suspended InGaAlAs reflector, the cavity mode can be perfectly matched to the appropriate quantum well absorption wavelength. The devices exhibit contrast ratios over 30 (15 dB) at 8 volts quantum well bias and modulation speeds of 1 MHz.

Photonic microharp chemical sensors.

We describe a new class of micro-opto-mechanical chemical sensors: A photonic microharp chemical sensor is an array of closely spaced microbridges, each differing slightly in length and coated with a different sorbent polymer. They are optically interrogated using microcavity interferometry and photothermal actuation, and are coupled directly to an optical fiber. Simultaneous measurements of the fundamental flexural resonant frequency of each microbridge allow the real-time detection and discrimination of a variety of vapor-phase analytes, including DMMP at concentrations as low as 17 ppb.

Low-loss suspended quantum well waveguides.

We have used surface micromachining to fabricate suspended InGaAs/InGaAsP quantum well waveguides that are supported by lateral tethers. The average measured TE propagation loss in our samples is 4.1 dB/cm, and the average measured TE loss per tether pair is 0.21 dB. These measurements are performed at wavelengths in the optical L-band, just 125 nm below the quantum well band gap.

An all-optical quantum gate in a semiconductor quantum dot.

We report coherent optical control of a biexciton (two electron-hole pairs), confined in a single quantum dot, that shows coherent oscillations similar to the excited-state Rabi flopping in an isolated atom. The pulse control of the biexciton dynamics, combined with previously demonstrated control of the single-exciton Rabi rotation, serves as the physical basis for a two-bit conditional quantum logic gate. The truth table of the gate shows the features of an all-optical quantum gate with interacting yet distinguishable excitons as qubits. Evaluation of the fidelity yields a value of 0.7 for the gate operation. Such experimental capability is essential to a scheme for scalable quantum computation by means of the optical control of spin qubits in dots.

Biexciton quantum coherence in a single quantum dot.

Nondegenerate (two-wavelength) two-photon absorption using coherent optical fields is used to show that there are two different quantum mechanical pathways leading to formation of the biexciton in a single quantum dot. Of specific importance to quantum information applications is the resulting coherent dynamics between the ground state and the biexciton from the pathway involving only optically induced exciton/biexciton quantum coherence. The data provide a direct measure of the biexciton decoherence rate which is equivalent to the decoherence of the Bell state in this system, as well as other critical optical parameters.

Rabi oscillations of excitons in single quantum dots.

Transient nonlinear optical spectroscopy, performed on excitons confined to single GaAs quantum dots, shows oscillations that are analogous to Rabi oscillations in two-level atomic systems. This demonstration corresponds to a one-qubit rotation in a single quantum dot which is important for proposals using quantum dot excitons for quantum computing. The dipole moment inferred from the data is consistent with that directly obtained from linear absorption studies. The measurement extends the artificial atom model of quantum dot excitonic transitions into the strong-field limit, and makes possible full coherent optical control of the quantum state of single excitons using optical pi pulses.

Near-field coherent spectroscopy and microscopy of a quantum dot system.

We combined coherent nonlinear optical spectroscopy with nano-electron volt energy resolution and low-temperature near-field microscopy with subwavelength resolution (