Lithium niobate (LN) is an “old” material with many applications in optical and microwave technologies, owing to its unique properties that include large second order nonlinear susceptibility, large piezoelectric response, and wide optical transparency window. Conventional discrete LN components, the workhorse of the optoelectronic industry for many decades, are reaching their limits, however. I will discuss our efforts aimed at the development of integrated LN photonic platform, featuring strong light confinement and dense integration, that has the potential to revolutionize optical communication networks and microwave photonic systems, as well as enable realization of quantum photonic circuits. Examples include high bandwidth, low voltage, and low loss electro-optic (EO) modulators [1], EO frequency combs [2], and programmable “photonic molecules” [3]. Devices that benefit from LN’s strong second and third order nonlinearity, including second harmonic generators [4] and Kerr frequency combs [5] will also be discussed.
Diamond is another “old” material with remarkable properties! It is transparent from the ultra-violet to infrared, has a high refractive index, strong optical nonlinearity and a wide variety of light-emitting defects of interest for quantum communication, computation and sensing. In my talk, I will discuss our recent efforts focused on the control of the negatively charged silicon vacancy (SiV) color center in diamond using nanomechanics. Examples include the enhancement [6] and coherent control [7] of SiV electron spin, and reducgion of spectral diffusion and inhomogeneous broadening [8] of SiV centers.
- Wang, M. Zhang, X. Chen, M. Bertrand, A. Shams-Ansari, S. Chandrasekhar, P. Winzer, and M. Lončar. “Integrated lithium niobate electro-optic modulators operating at CMOS-compatible voltages.” Nature, 562, 101 (2018)
- Zhang, B. Buscaino, C. Wang, A. Shams-Ansari, C. Reimer, R. Zhu, J. Kahn, and M. Loncar. “Broadband electro-optic frequency comb generation in an integrated microring resonator.” Nature, 568, 373(2019)
- Zhang, C. Wang, Y. Hu, A. Shams-Ansari, T. Ren, S. Fan, and M. Lončar. “Electronically Programmable Photonic Molecule.” Nature Photonics, 13, 36 (2019)
- Wang, C. Langrock, A. Marandi, M. Jankowski, M. Zhang, B. Desiatov, M. M. Fejer, and M. Lončar. “Ultrahigh-efficiency wavelength conversion in nanophotonic periodically poled lithium niobate waveguides.” Optica, 5, 1438 (2018)
- Wang, M. Zhang, M. Yu, R. Zhu, H. Hu, and M. Loncar, “Monolithic lithium niobate photonic circuits for Kerr frequency comb generation and modulation.” Nature Communications, 10, 978 (2019)
- I. Sohn*, S. Meesala*, B. Pingault*, H. A. Atikian, J. Holzgrafe, M. Gündoğan, C. Stavrakas, M. J. Stanley, A. Sipahigil, J. Choi, M. Zhang, J. L. Pacheco, J. Abraham, E. Bielejec, M. D. Lukin, M. Atatüre, and Marko Lončar. “Controlling the coherence of a diamond spin qubit through its strain environment.” Nature Communications, 9, 2012 (2018)
- Maity, L. Shao, S. Bogdanović, S. Meesala, Y. I. Sohn, N. Sinclair, B. Pingault, M. Chalupnik, C. Chia, L. Zheng, K. Lai, and M. Lončar “Coherent Acoustic Control of a Single Silicon Vacancy Spin in Diamond.” arXiv:1910.09710v2 (2019)
- Machielse, S. Bogdanovic, S. Meesala, S. Gauthier, M. J. Burek, G. Joe, M. Chalupnik, Y. I. Sohn, J. Holzgrafe, R. E. Evans, C. Chia, H. Atikian, M. K. Bhaskar, D. D. Sukachev, L. Shao, S. Maity, M. D. Lukin, and M. Loncar. Submitted. “Electromechanical Control of Quantum Emitters in Nanophotonic Devices” Physical Review X, 9, 031022 (2019).
