Thermo-Optically Induced Transparency on a photonic chip

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates thermo-optically induced transparency in a silicon photonic crystal resonator at room temperature, enabling EIT-like effects without atomic or mechanical resonances for integrated photonics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel thermo-optically induced transparency effect in silicon photonics, expanding EIT analogues to chip-scale, room-temperature systems without atomic resonances.

Findings

Observation of thermo-optically induced transparency at room temperature

Reproduction of key EIT features via thermal effects

Potential for scalable, low-cost integrated photonic devices

Abstract

Controlling the optical response of a medium through suitably tuned coherent electromagnetic fields is highly relevant in a number of potential applications, from all-optical modulators to optical storage devices. In particular, electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) is an established phenomenon in which destructive quantum interference creates a transparency window over a narrow spectral range around an absorption line, which, in turn, allows to slow and ultimately stop light due to the anomalous refractive index dispersion. Here we report on the observation of a new form of either induced transparency or amplification of a weak probe beam in a strongly driven silicon photonic crystal resonator at room temperature. The effect is based on the oscillating temperature field induced in a nonlinear optical cavity, and it reproduces many of the key features of EIT while being independent of either atomic or mechanical resonances. Such thermo-optically induced transparency (TOIT) will allow a versatile implementation of EIT-analogues in an integrated photonic platform, at almost arbitrary wavelength of interest, room temperature and in a practical, low cost and scalable system.