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Nonlinear Optics in χ(2)/χ(3) Integrated Photonics

Details are subject to change.

  • Organiser

    Camille-Sophie Brès, EPFL, Switzerland

  • Day & Time

    21.09.2022, 08:30 – 10:15

  • Location

    Room Kairo

  • Description

    Integrated nonlinear photonics is a highly active research area. The investigations and study of nonlinear effects based on third-order nonlinearity, which is ubiquitous to all material platform through their third order susceptibility χ(3), is the most developed and now transitioning to proof-of concept experimental applications. 

    Unlike the widely accessible Kerr effect, second-order nonlinear effects are only intrinsic to non-centrosymmetric media. However, χ(2) nonlinearity is essential for the electro-optic effect and underpins various three-wave mixing parametric processes. With the recent maturing in fabrication of integrated waveguides based on materials exhibiting both χ(2) and χ(3) nonlinearities (SiC, LNOI, AlN...) new opportunities and physics might arise, but studies are still very recent.

    This symposium focusses on the recent development in the design of integrated devices for leveraging both 2nd and 3rd order nonlinear effects.  Different material platforms, approaches, potential and applications will be discussed.

  • Programme

    08:30 – 08:50: Lithium niobate integrated photonics, from highly nonlinear to a few photons, Victor Brasch, Q.ANT, Germany

    08:50 – 09:10: Few-Cycle Nonlinear Photonics: From Nanoscale Devices to Large-Scale Circuits, Alireza Marandi, California Institute of Technology, USA

    09:10 – 09:30: Lithium Niobate Metasurfaces for Parametric Frequency Conversion, Frank Setzpfandt, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany

    09:30 – 09:50: Photo-induced harmonic and comb generation in silicon nitride microresonators, Jianqi Hu, EPFL, Switzerland & Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, France

    09:50 – 10:10: Nonlinear photonics in ultra-silicon-rich nitride and silicon carbide devices, Dawn Tan, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore

  • Speakers

    Speaker 1: Victor Brasch, Q.ANT, Germany
    Title: Lithium niobate integrated photonics, from highly nonlinear to a few photons
    Abstract: Lithium niobate is a very powerful material platform for integrated photonics. Applications range from nonlinear lasers to metrology, telecom and quantum. Here I give an overview of some of these applications and how lithium niobate facilitates the development of fast and efficient PICs.

    Speaker 2: Alireza Marandi, California Institute of Technology, USA
    Title: Few-Cycle Nonlinear Photonics: From Nanoscale Devices to Large-Scale Circuits
    Abstract: Evident from more than 50 years of table-top nonlinear optics, utilizing strong quadratic nonlinearities in integrated photonics can significantly expand the potentials of photonics for applications ranging from sensing to computing, especially in the ultra-short-pulse regime. In the past few years, nanophotonic lithium niobate (LN) has emerged as one of the most promising integrated photonic platforms with strong quadratic nonlinearity. In this talk we present some of our recent experimental results on realization and utilizing of dispersion-engineered and quasi-phase-matched devices in nanophotonic LN for intense optical parametric amplification, ultrafast ultra-low-energy all-optical switching, and few-cycle vacuum squeezing. We also present some recent experimental and numerical results on how resonators with only strong quadratic nonlinearities exhibit phase transitions in the spectral domain, and pulse compression. We show a path for realization of large-scale ultrafast nanophotonic circuits in the classical and quantum regimes.
    Biograpy: Alireza Marandi is an Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering and Applied Physics at Caltech. He received his PhD from Stanford University in 2013. Before joining Caltech, he held positions as a postdoctoral scholar and a research engineer at Stanford, a visiting scientist at the National Institute of Informatics in Japan, and a senior engineer in the Advanced Technology Group of Dolby Laboratories. Marandi is a Senior Member of OSA and IEEE and has been the recipient of NSF CAREER award, the AFOSR YIP award, and the Young Scientist Prize of the IUPAP. He is named the 2019 KNI-Wheatley Scholar.

    Speaker 3: Frank Setzpfandt, Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Germany
    Title: Lithium Niobate Metasurfaces for Parametric Frequency Conversion
    Abstract: Lithium niobate is an advantageous material for nonlinear nanophotonics. I will discuss the realization of lithium niobate Mie resonators and their use for classical second-harmonic generation as well as the generation of photon pairs by spontaneous parametric down conversion.
    Biography: Frank Setzpfandt is a research group leader for quantum optics at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany. He studied physics at the Friedrich Schiller University, from which he also received his PhD. Before returning to Jena, he spent time as a PostDoc at the Australian National University in Canberra. His research is concentrating on nonlinear frequency conversion and the generation of photon pairs, quantum imaging and sensing, and integrated quantum optics.

    Speaker 4: Jianqi Hu, EPFL, Switzerland & Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, France
    Title: Photo-induced harmonic and comb generation in silicon nitride microresonators
    Abstract: Recent progress in nonlinear photonics implemented on ultra-silicon-rich nitride (USRN) and silicon carbide is presented. We report observations of optical parametric processes and Bragg soliton dynamics including pulse train generation, temporal compression and optical amplification on a chip. The efficiency of nonlinear optical processes in both USRN and SiC is facilitated by the absence of two-photon absorption at telecommunications wavelengths.

    Speaker 5: Dawn Tan, Singapore University of Technology and Design, Singapore
    Title: Nonlinear photonics in ultra-silicon-rich nitride and silicon carbide devices
    Abstract: Integrated nonlinear photonics has been rapidly developing over the past decades, enabling efficient nonlinear conversion and various photonic applications. In silicon photonics, due to the lack of second-order (χ(2)) responses of these materials, the parametric processes had long been restricted to using only third-order (χ(3)) nonlinearity. Such a limitation has recently been overcome by optically inscribing effective χ(2) in Si3N4 via coherent photogalvanic effect and efficient second-harmonic has been generated in Si3N4 microresonators. After the χ(2) grating is photo-induced, rich cascaded nonlinear effects take place, such as the consecutive switching of χ(3) primary combs together with sum-frequency generation or cascaded sum-frequency process. Such flexible χ(2) phase matching capability positions Si3N4, though without intrinsic χ(2), as an excellent platform to explore complex physics of combined χ(2) and χ(3) effects in microresonators.
    Biograpy: Jianqi Hu received the B.E. degree from University of Electronic Science and Technology of China in 2016, and the Ph.D. degree in photonics from École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), Switzerland, in 2021. After completing the Ph.D., he continued his research as postdoc at EPFL from 2021 to 2022. Currently, he is SNF postdoc fellow in Laboratoire Kastler Brossel, Ecole Normale Supérieure, France. His research interests include integrated nonlinear photonics, frequency combs, optical orbital angular momentum, and optical computing.