Photo-induced writing and erasing of gratings in As₂S₃ chalcogenide microresonators

Abstract

Reconfigurable optical devices provide new opportunities for integrated photonics. The use of chalcogenide glasses, with large refractive index nonlinearity and photosensitivity, in conjunction with the microresonator platform has proven to be a powerful tool in the study and application of nanophotonics. Here, we report cavity-enhanced photo-induced writing and erasing of gratings in a chalcogenide As 2 S 3 microresonator. Grating writing is implemented with self-enhanced standing wave modes, while the erasing of written gratings as well as removing of intrinsic back-scattering is achieved by Kerr-nonlinearity-induced symmetry breaking in the microresonator. These findings pave the way for future reconfigurable photonic devices and reveal exciting new possibilities for nonlinear photonics and microresonators.

Cascaded forward Brillouin lasing in a chalcogenide whispering gallery mode microresonator

“…Due to the high nonlinearity of chalcogenide glass, symmetry breaking is known to occur at powers of the order of a mW [27]. The damage threshold for chalcogenide microresonators is also known to be in the same range [33]. Therefore, it is likely that the power of the comb from a microsphere resonator cannot be increased dramatically without using an external amplifier.…”

Comprehensive review of advances in the field of chalcogenide glass microresonators

“…The gratings are written in the resonator by forming standing wave modes. The high Q factor (∼10 7 ) and high nonlinear RI ( n 2 ∼ 3 × 10 −18 W/m 2 ) lead to the Kerr symmetry breaking at around 300 µW input power, which triggers an enhanced forward coupling mode and eliminates the backward coupling mode, thereby erasing the gratings 72 …”

Engineered Raman Lasing in Photonic Integrated Chalcogenide Microresonators

“…[26][27][28][29][30][31] It has wide transparency from the visible to the infrared region (up to ≈25 μm). [32][33][34][35][36] Being amorphous, the material Raman gain becomes broadband, enabling a flexible design on the free spectral range (FSR) of integrated microresonators. [10,12,36] Such properties in integrated photonic devices not only enable largely boost the performance of SRS and the Raman lasing at low optical powers but can also lead to nontrivial nonlinear interactions over a large wavelength.…”