High optical confinement waveguides on integrated platforms enable nonlinear optical interactions with low power levels. The third-order nonlinear susceptibility, a modification of a material’s permittivity due to an applied optical field, exists in all materials, and is an intensity-dependent process leading to third-order parametric effects. Harnessing the high optical intensities enabled by high confinement waveguides allows standard semiconductor materials to become power-efficient parametric nonlinear optical devices that can operate with powers in the mW range. The optical confinement of a waveguide also enables control over the waveguide’s dispersion, allowing for phase-matching of the parametric processes thereby improving its operating bandwidth. Using standard nanofabrication techniques, integrated photonic devices can be tailored in both geometry at the nanoscale, and in magnitude of their third-order susceptibility through modification of their material properties. In this talk, we will discuss a variety of parametric nonlinear optical demonstrations in silicon-based waveguides including optical parametric amplification and oscillation, phase-sensitive amplification, and frequency conversion and comb generation. Furthermore, we will discuss these devices for a variety of applications including optical signal processing, spectroscopy, and security.

Optical microresonators have achieved impressive sensitivities in a range of experimental modalities. We leverage the exquisite sensitivity of microresonators to enable highly sensitive spectroscopic characterization of objects on the surface of the resonator. In this way, not only can single particles be detected and identified, but fundamental properties of interrogated systems can be studied, opening a path to mechanistic studies and label-free chemical identification.

Our photothermal-based technique employs a two-beam geometry. A fiber-coupled (probe) beam records the whispering-gallery mode (WGM) resonance wavelength via evanescent coupling through a tapered fiber, while a second free-space (pump) beam heats absorbing particles or molecules on the surface of the microresonator, shifting the WGM resonance. In essence we use the microresonator as a nearfield thermometer to measure dissipated heat upon optical excitation. To circumvent the photothermal background of the popular SiO₂ on Si toroidal resonators, we have developed an all-SiO₂ microtoroidal resonator, unlocking visible wavelengths to interrogation. We further employed a double-modulation technique through simultaneous Pound-Drever-Hall locking of the probe beam and amplitude modulation of the pump beam to reach sub-100 Hz or single attometer resonance shift resolution. This corresponds to signals much smaller than that predicted from a single-molecule, and thus represents an avenue toward single-molecule absorption spectroscopy.

We demonstrate this technique by examining gold nanorods (AuNR), which validate our experimental setup with near-diffraction limited photothermal maps, Lorentzian absorption spectra with stochastic center wavelengths, and single dipole polarization dependences. Further, AuNRs in close proximity to microresonator WGMs display signatures of photonic-plasmonic interactions, a forest of Fano resonances decorating the plasmonic absorption feature. This platform offers a facile methodology to study these complex interactions, with thermal annealing of the AuNRs producing highly controllable tuning of Fano resonances. Applying our platform to conductive polymers (CP), we have begun to understand the fundamental properties that enable the high conductivity from a bottom-up nanoscale perspective. We examine the interplay between homogeneous and heterogeneous broadening, measure the long-range ordering, and determine relative surface orientation of CPs. These examples firmly demonstrate the utility of our platform to go beyond sensing allowing exploration of novel characteristics in complex systems and potentially the observation of chemical and biochemical dynamics.

One potential phenomenon enabling opto-acoustic frequency generation is stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS), which is essentially an interaction between propagating phonons and photons. This effect has been demonstrated in optical fibers, and recent results in on-chip waveguides show promise. One of the challenges with SBS on chip is that gain is dependent on long interaction lengths.

This interaction can be enhanced by moving to a different domain of phonon/photon interaction: cavity optomechanics. In an optomechanical cavity, the characteristics of the generated frequency are dependent on the mechanical eigenmode. We will demonstrate the relationship between mechanical quality factor and phase noise in ring optomechanical oscillators.

The optomechanical interaction can be optimized beyond that of ring resonators by further confining optical and mechanical modes using photonic and phononic crystals. We have designed and fabricated Si₃N₄ nanobeam optomechanical crystals with ~4 GHz mechanical breathing modes. The increased optomechanical coupling of these nanobeams confers high sensitivity to displacement, which could be exploited for various metrology applications, which we will discuss.

Further enhancement of the optomechanical coupling can be achieved by modifying the optomechanical crystal geometry to support an optical slot mode. We have designed and fabricated ~3 GHz-frequency slot-mode optomechanical crystals in Si₃N₄. In addition to increasing the optomechanical coupling compared to the single-nanobeam device, this structure has increased versatility, enabling interaction with other stimuli and modalities. We have integrated NEMS actuators with a slot-mode optomechanical crystal, and used these actuators to tune the optical mode and lock it to an external, fixed laser wavelength. This increases the practicality of this device, enabling longer-term measurements and stabler frequency sources.

In this talk, I will describe our recent efforts to merge nanophotonics, ultra-high vacuum, and atomic physics together to build a new generation of cold atom sensors and standards. In particular, I will focus on our recent realization of a single-beam system for cooling lithium atoms, an atomic species recently identified as an excellent candidate for a primary vacuum standard. Our system uses a triangular-shaped nanofabricated diffraction grating to produce the necessary beams for a magneto-optical trap that cools and slows the atoms. Unlike systems that use rubidium or cesium, which can be loaded from a vapor, lithium introduces additional complications because it must be produce from a thermal source requiring loading of the magneto-optical trap from behind the chip. Finally, I will conclude by talking about other trap geometries that we are pursuing, how they benefit vacuum and inertial sensors, and what the synergy of integrated nanophotonics, high-vacuum and atomic physics might be able to bring.