Tuning out disorder-induced localization in nanophotonic cavity arrays

TL;DR

This paper introduces a method to precisely tune nanophotonic cavity resonances, counteracting disorder-induced localization, using holographic laser heating and a response matrix approach, demonstrated by anticrossing of three resonances.

Contribution

A novel tuning technique for coupled nanocavities that mitigates disorder effects using holographic heating and thermal crosstalk compensation.

Findings

Successful resonance tuning via holographic heating

Observation of anticrossing of three resonances

Effective suppression of disorder-induced localization

Abstract

Weakly coupled high-Q nanophotonic cavities are building blocks of slow-light waveguides and other nanophotonic devices. Their functionality critically depends on tuning as resonance frequencies should stay within the bandwidth of the device. Unavoidable disorder leads to random frequency shifts which cause localization of the light in single cavities. We present a new method to finely tune individual resonances of light in a system of coupled nanocavities. We use holographic laser-induced heating and address thermal crosstalk between nanocavities using a response matrix approach. As a main result we observe a simultaneous anticrossing of 3 nanophotonic resonances, which were initially split by disorder.