Optimal all-optical switching of a microcavity resonance in the telecom range using the electronic Kerr effect

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates ultrafast all-optical switching of microcavity resonances in the telecom range using the electronic Kerr effect, analyzing how material properties and pulse parameters influence the resonance shift.

Contribution

It provides a comprehensive experimental and theoretical study of Kerr-effect-based switching in GaAs/AlAs and AlGaAs/AlAs microcavities, including optimal parameter settings.

Findings

Resonance shifts within one picosecond were achieved.

The shift magnitude depends on material bandgap and pump photon energy.

Matching pulse duration to cavity storage time maximizes the shift.

Abstract

We have switched GaAs/AlAs and AlGaAs/AlAs planar microcavities that operate in the "Original" (O) telecom band by exploiting the instantaneous electronic Kerr effect. We observe that the resonance frequency reversibly shifts within one picosecond. We investigate experimentally and theoretically the role of several main parameters: the material backbone and its electronic bandgap, the pump power, the quality factor, and the duration of the switch pulse. The magnitude of the shift is reduced when the backbone of the central $\lambda-$layer has a greater electronic bandgap; pumping with photon energies near the bandgap resonantly enhances the switched magnitude. Our model shows that the magnitude of the resonance frequency shift depends on the pump pulse duration and is maximized when the duration matches the cavity storage time that is set by the quality factor. We provide the settings for the essential parameters so that the frequency shift of the cavity resonance can be increased to one linewidth.