High-efficiency degenerate four-wave mixing in triply resonant nanobeam cavities

Using a combination of temporal coupled-mode theory and nonlinear finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we study the nonlinear dynamics of all-resonant four-wave mixing processes and demonstrate the possibility of achieving high-efficiency limit cycles and steady states that lead to ≈100...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lin, Zin, Alcorn, Thomas, Loncar, Marko, Johnson, Steven G., Rodriguez, Alejandro W.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mathematics
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: American Physical Society 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/88624
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7327-4967
Description
Summary:Using a combination of temporal coupled-mode theory and nonlinear finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations, we study the nonlinear dynamics of all-resonant four-wave mixing processes and demonstrate the possibility of achieving high-efficiency limit cycles and steady states that lead to ≈100% depletion of the incident light at low input (critical) powers. Our analysis extends previous predictions to capture important effects associated with losses, self- and cross-phase modulation, and imperfect frequency matching (detuning) of the cavity frequencies. We find that maximum steady-state conversion is hypersensitive to frequency mismatch, resulting in high-efficiency limit cycles that arise from the presence of a homoclinic bifurcation in the solution phase space, but that a judicious choice of incident frequencies and input powers, in conjuction with self-phase and cross-phase modulation, can restore high-efficiency steady-state conversion even for large frequency mismatch. Assuming operation in the telecom range, we predict close to perfect quantum efficiencies at reasonably low ∼50mW input powers in silicon micrometer-scale PhC nanobeam cavities.