Piezo-optomechanical signal transduction using Lamb wave supermodes in a suspended Gallium Arsenide photonic integrated circuits platform

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates enhanced microwave-to-optical signal transduction in a GaAs photonic platform by using Lamb wave supermodes, achieving higher efficiency and transduction up to 7 GHz, with potential for quantum applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybridized Lamb wave resonator architecture in GaAs PICs that significantly improves transduction efficiency and bandwidth for microwave-optical signals.

Findings

Achieved signal transduction up to 7 GHz.

Increased transduction efficiency by approximately 25 times.

Demonstrated the use of Lamb wave supermodes in GaAs PICs for improved transduction.

Abstract

Piezoelectric optomechanical platforms present one of the most promising routes towards efficient transduction of signals from the microwave to the optical frequency domains. New device architectures need to be developed in order to achieve the stringent requirements for building efficient quantum transducers. In this work, we utilize the mechanical supermode principle to improve the overall microwave to optical transduction efficiency, by fabricating Lamb wave resonators that are hybridized with the mechanical breathing modes of a rib waveguide in a suspended gallium arsenide (GaAs) photonic integrated circuits (PIC) platform. Combining the strong elasto-optic interactions available in GaAs with the increased phonon injection efficiency enabled by this architecture, we demonstrate signal transduction up to 7 GHz, and an increase in transduction efficiency by $\approx$ 25$\times$ for the hybridized mode ($f_m\approx$ 2 GHz), using this approach. We also outline routes for improving device performance to enable quantum transduction within this platform.