Nonlinear optical tuning of photonic crystal microcavities by near-field probe

Journal Article · Mon Jul 14 04:00:00 EDT 2008 · Applied Physics Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.2960259· OSTI ID:21123977

Vignolini, Silvia; Zani, Margherita; Riboli, Francesco; Vinattieri, Anna; Wiersma, Diederik S; Gurioli, Massimo ^[1]; Intonti, Francesca ^[1]; Balet, Laurent; Li, Lianhe ^[2]; Colocci, Marcello ^[3]; Francardi, Marco; Gerardino, Annamaria ^[4]; Fiore, Andrea ^[5]

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1. LENS and Department of Physics, University of Florence, Via Nello Carrara 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Italy)
2. Ecole Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Institute of Photonics and Quantum Electronics, Station 3, CH-1015 Lausanne (Switzerland)
3. CNISM, Unita di Ricerca di Firenze, Via Sansone 1, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino (Italy)
4. Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnology, CNR, via del Cineto Romano 42, 00156 Roma (Italy)
5. COBRA Research Institute, Eindhoven University of Technology, 5600 MB Eindhoven (Netherlands)

We report on a nonlinear way to control and tune the dielectric environment of photonic crystal microcavities exploiting the local heating induced by near-field laser excitation at different excitation powers. The temperature gradient due to the optical absorption results in an index of refraction gradient which modifies the dielectric surroundings of the cavity and shifts the optical modes. Reversible tuning can be obtained either by changing the excitation power density or by exciting in different points of the photonic crystal microcavity.

• OSTI ID: 21123977
• Journal Information: Applied Physics Letters, Journal Name: Applied Physics Letters Journal Issue: 2 Vol. 93; ISSN APPLAB; ISSN 0003-6951
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
ABSORPTION
CRYSTALS
DIELECTRIC MATERIALS
EXCITATION
LASERS
NONLINEAR OPTICS
OPTICAL MODES
POWER DENSITY
REFRACTIVE INDEX
TEMPERATURE GRADIENTS