High quality factor nanophotonic resonators in bulk rare-earth doped crystals

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates high quality factor nanophotonic resonators in bulk rare-earth doped crystals, enabling advanced quantum and nonlinear optical devices on a chip-scale platform.

Contribution

It introduces a fabrication method for nanobeam resonators in bulk rare-earth doped crystals with high quality factors and small mode volumes, suitable for quantum applications.

Findings

Quality factors up to 27,000 achieved

Operation across visible, near-infrared, and telecom wavelengths

Potential for on-chip quantum memories and single-photon sources

Abstract

Numerous bulk crystalline materials exhibit attractive nonlinear and luminescent properties for classical and quantum optical applications. A chip-scale platform for high quality factor optical nanocavities in these materials will enable new optoelectronic devices and quantum light-matter interfaces. In this article, photonic crystal nanobeam resonators fabricated using focused ion beam milling in bulk insulators, such as rare-earth doped yttrium orthosilicate and yttrium vanadate, are demonstrated. Operation in the visible, near infrared, and telecom wavelengths with quality factors up to 27,000 and optical mode volumes close to one cubic wavelength is measured. These devices enable new nanolasers, on-chip quantum optical memories, single photon sources, and non-linear devices at low photon numbers based on rare-earth ions. The techniques are also applicable to other luminescent centers and crystals.