Nanocrystalline silicon optomechanical cavities

TL;DR

This paper explores nanocrystalline silicon as a cost-effective alternative for integrated optomechanical cavities, demonstrating complex nonlinear dynamics and high-frequency effects at low power levels.

Contribution

It introduces nanocrystalline silicon for optomechanical cavities and shows their ability to exhibit nonlinear behaviors and high-frequency effects.

Findings

Demonstrated thermo-optic/self-carrier-dispersion self-pulsing

Achieved phonon lasing and chaos at low power

Operated at frequencies up to 0.3 GHz

Abstract

Silicon on insulator photonics has offered a versatile platform for the recent development of integrated optomechanical circuits. However, there are some constraints such as the high cost of the wafers and limitation to a single physical device level. In the present work we investigate nanocrystalline silicon as an alternative material for optomechanical devices. In particular, we demonstrate that optomechanical crystal cavities fabricated of nanocrystalline silicon have optical and mechanical properties enabling non-linear dynamical behaviour and effects such as thermo-optic/free-carrier-dispersion self-pulsing, phonon lasing and chaos, all at low input laser power and with typical frequencies as high as 0.3 GHz.