Modulation of photonic structures by surface acoustic waves

Abstract

This paper reviews the interaction between coherently stimulated acoustic phonons in the form of surface acoustic waves with light beams in semiconductor based photonic structures. We address the generation of surface acoustic wave modes in these structures as well as the technological aspects related to control of the propagation and spatial distribution of the acoustic fields. The microscopic mechanisms responsible for the interaction between light and surface acoustic modes in different structures are then reviewed. Particular emphasis is given to the acousto-optical interaction in semiconductor microcavities and its application in photon control. These structures exhibit high optical modulation levels under acoustic excitation and are compatible with integrated light sources and detectors.

Phonon-Induced Polariton Superlattices

“…3(d). The splitting, which has been previously reported for bare cavities (i.e., without QWs) [1,16], directly demonstrates the formation of an energy gap through the strong interaction between the polariton modes with wave vectors k x k SAW =2 mediated by the phonons. The power dependence of the energy of the zone-edge resonances is also in very good agreement with the calculations, as shown in Fig.…”

“…The complex amplitudes" ij were determined using the elastic model for SAW propagation described in Refs. [15,16]. Using these results, the spatial modulation of !…”

“…3 show the first four branches of the lower (LP) and upper (UP) polariton dispersion curves calculated for three different detunings using the procedure described in Ref. [16]. The folded dispersion presents gaps at its center and boundaries, which increase with the acoustic intensity.…”

Sub-optical wavelength acoustic wave modulation of integrated photonic resonators at microwave frequencies

“…SAW thus can have very high energy confinement and attain large overlap with the optical modes of the planar waveguides to achieve efficient A/O modulation in compact devices. However, the highest operation frequency of such SAW-based integrated A/O devices that have been achieved was still below one GHz so far [11][12][13][14][15] .…”

Interface nano-confined acoustic waves in polymeric surface phononic crystals

“…3,4 Among them surface phononic crystals (SPCs) are metamaterials obtained by periodically nano-patterning the surface of a solid substrate, thus modulating the surface elastic properties. SPCs play a key role in technological applications due to their capability to sustain surface acoustic waves (SAWs)-mechanical oscillations confined within an acoustic wavelength k from the surface-at the core of a variety of sensing schemes, 5,6 opto-acoustics, 7 and microfluidics devices. [8][9][10] Excitation of hypersonic frequency SAWs in SPCs has been achieved by means of time-resolved all-optical techniques, [11][12][13][14][15] lately reaching SAW confinements of few tens of nm.…”