Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) based frequency doublers have widely been recognized as an essential component for both classical and quantum optical communications. Nonetheless, the efficiency (unit: %/W) of these devices is hindered by imperfections present in the quasi-phase matching (QPM) spectrum. In this report, we present a thorough experimental study of spectral imperfections in TFLN frequency doublers with varying lengths, ranging from 5 to 15 mm. A non-destructive diagnostic method based on scattered light imaging is proposed and employed to identify the waveguide sections and primary waveguide parameters contributing to the imperfections in the QPM spectrum. By applying this method, we obtain the evolution of the QPM spectrum along the waveguide’s length. Correlating this information with the measurements of the relevant geometric parameters along the waveguides suggests that the TFLN film thickness variation is the primary source for the measured spectral distortions. Furthermore, we numerically reproduce the QPM spectra with the mapped TFLN film thickness across the entire waveguiding regions. These findings align with and complement the simulation results from previous numerical studies, providing further evidence of the effectiveness of the developed diagnostic method. This comprehensive investigation offers valuable insights into the identification and mitigation of spectral imperfections in TFLN-based frequency doublers, paving the way for the realization of nonlinear optical devices with enhanced efficiency and improved spectral fidelity.

We unveil the primary origin of imperfections in quasi-phase-matching (QPM) spectrum from thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) frequency doublers using scattered light imaging. We conclude the measured spectral distortion arises from non-uniformities in the film thickness.

Hybrid superconducting-photonic microresonators are a promising platform for realizing microwave -to-optical transduction. However, the absorption of scattered photons by the superconductors leads to unintended microwave resonance-frequency variation and line-width broadening. Here, we experimen-tally study the dynamics of this effect and its impact on microwave-to-optics conversion in an integrated lithium niobate-superconductor hybrid-resonator platform. We unveil an adiabatic frequency shifting of the intracavity microwave photons induced by the fast photoresponses of the thin-film superconducting resonator. As a result, the temporal and spectral responses of electro-optics transduction are modified and well described by our theoretical model. This work provides insights into the light-induced conversion dynamics that must be considered in future designs of hybrid superconducting-photonic system.

Superconducting cavity electro-optics presents a promising route to coherently convert microwave and optical photons and distribute quantum entanglement between superconducting circuits over long-distance. Strong Pockels nonlinearity and high-performance optical cavity are the prerequisites for high conversion efficiency. Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) offers these desired characteristics. Despite significant recent progresses, only unidirectional conversion with efficiencies on the order of 10 −5 has been realized. In this article, we demonstrate the bidirectional electro-optic conversion in TFLN-superconductor hybrid system, with conversion efficiency improved by more than three orders of magnitude. Our air-clad device architecture boosts the sustainable intracavity pump power at cryogenic temperatures by suppressing the prominent photorefractive effect that limits cryogenic performance of TFLN, and reaches an efficiency of 1.02% (internal efficiency of 15.2%). This work firmly establishes the TFLN-superconductor hybrid EO system as a highly competitive transduction platform for future quantum network applications.

Thin-film lithium niobate is an attractive integrated photonics platform due to its low optical loss and favorable optical nonlinear and electro-optic properties. However, in applications such as second harmonic generation, frequency comb generation, and microwave-to-optics conversion, the device performance is strongly impeded by the photorefractive effect inherent in thin-film lithium niobate. In this paper, we show that the dielectric cladding on a lithium niobate microring resonator has a significant influence on the photorefractive effect. By removing the dielectric cladding layer, the photorefractive effect in lithium niobate ring resonators can be effectively mitigated. Our work presents a reliable approach to control the photorefractive effect on thin-film lithium niobate and will further advance the performance of integrated classical and quantum photonic devices based on thin-film lithium niobate.

In this article we have proposed a novel graphene based tunable semiconductor metamaterial which can be effectively tuned in the long wavelength infrared region of the electromagnetic spectrum by only changing the chemical potential of graphene via a gate voltage without needing to vary the doping concentration of semiconductor. The previously reported semiconductor metamaterial constructed from doped InGaAs and intrinsic AlInAs layers shows all angle negative refraction Hoffman et al.. However, it cannot be tuned without changing the doping concentration of semiconductor and changing doping concentration makes the material lossy. Since Graphene possesses tunable surface conductivity which can be tuned effectively by changing the chemical potential of graphene, we have proposed a novel structure where graphene sheet is inserted between the InGaAs and AlInAs layers. Through rigorous mathematical analysis we have shown that by changing only the chemical potential, without needing to modify the structural properties, it is possible to tune the spectral region of permittivity where negative refraction occurs which in turns gives tunability to iso-frequency wave vector dispersion, transmittance, reflectance and absorption coefficient. The proposed method would simplify the tuning process of semiconductor metamaterials. This unique graphene based tunable semiconductor metamaterial would be an attractive feature in the rapid and continuously developing semiconductor industry.

We demonstrate an efficient, bi-directional electro-optic frequency converter based on a hybrid lithium-niobate/superconductor material platform. Through materials and device engineering to mitigate the limiting photorefractive effect, on-chip conversion effi-ciency of 1% is realized.

Materials with strong $\chi^{(2)}$ optical nonlinearity, especially lithium niobate, play a critical role in building optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). However, chip-scale integration of low-loss $\chi^{(2)}$ materials remains challenging and limits the threshold power of on-chip $\chi^{(2)}$ OPO. Here we report the first on-chip lithium niobate optical parametric oscillator at the telecom wavelengths using a quasi-phase matched, high-quality microring resonator, whose threshold power ($\sim$30 $\mu$W) is 400 times lower than that in previous $\chi^{(2)}$ integrated photonics platforms. An on-chip power conversion efficiency of 11% is obtained at a pump power of 93 $\mu$W. The OPO wavelength tuning is achieved by varying the pump frequency and chip temperature. With the lowest power threshold among all on-chip OPOs demonstrated so far, as well as advantages including high conversion efficiency, flexibility in quasi-phase matching and device scalability, the thin-film lithium niobate OPO opens new opportunities for chip-based tunable classical and quantum light sources and provides an potential platform for realizing photonic neural networks.

Thin film lithium niobate (LN) has recently emerged as a playground for chip-scale nonlinear optics and leads to highly efficient frequency conversions from near infrared to near-visible bands. For many nonlinear and quantum photonics applications, it is desirable to operate deep into the visible band within LN's transparency window. However, the strong material dispersion at short wavelengths makes phase-matching difficult, necessitating sub-micron scale control of domain structures for efficient quasi-phase-matching (QPM). Here we report the operation of thin film LN in the blue wavelength and high fidelity poling of thin-film LN waveguide to this regime. As a result, quasi-phase matching is realized between IR (871nm) and blue (435.5nm) wavelengths in a straight waveguide and prompts strong blue light generation with a conversion efficiency $2900\pm400\%W^{-1}cm^{-2}$

We demonstrate an efficient optical parametric oscillator at the telecom band using a triple-resonant, periodically poled lithium niobate microring resonator, which, to the best of our knowledge, delivers the lowest threshold power ( ∼ 30 µ W) for on-chip OPOs so far.

We report intracavity Bragg scattering induced by the photorefractive (PR) effect in high- Q lithium niobate ring resonators at cryogenic temperatures. We show that when a cavity mode is strongly excited, the PR effect imprints a long-lived periodic space-charge field. This residual field in turn creates a refractive index modulation pattern that dramatically enhances the back scattering of an incoming probe light, and results in selective and reconfigurable mode splittings. This PR-induced Bragg scattering effect, despite being undesired for many applications, could be utilized to enable optically programmable photonic components.

The absence of the single-photon nonlinearity has been a major roadblock in developing quantum photonic circuits at optical frequencies. In this paper, we demonstrate a periodically-poled thin film lithium niobate microring resonator (PPLNMR) that reaches 5,000,000 efficiency—almost 20-fold enhancement over the state-of-the-art—by accessing its largest χ^(2) tensor component d_33 via quasi-phase matching. The corresponding single photon coupling rate g/2π is estimated to be 1.2 MHz, which is an important milestone as it approaches the dissipation rate κ/2π of best available lithium niobate microresonators developed in the community. Using a figure of merit defined as g/κ, our devices reach a single photon nonlinearity approaching 1 scaling of the device, it is possible to improve the single photon nonlinearity to a regime where photon-blockade effect can be manifested.

Hybrid quantum systems are essential for the realization of distributed quantum networks. In particular, piezo-mechanics operating at typical superconducting qubit frequencies features low thermal excitations, and offers an appealing platform to bridge superconducting quantum processors and optical telecommunication channels. However, integrating superconducting and optomechanical elements at cryogenic temperatures with sufficiently strong interactions remains a tremendous challenge. Here, we report an integrated superconducting cavity piezo-optomechanical platform where 10 GHz phonons are resonantly coupled with photons in a superconducting cavity and a nanophotonic cavity at the same time. Taking advantage of the large piezo-mechanical cooperativity ( C em ~7) and the enhanced optomechanical coupling boosted by a pulsed optical pump, we demonstrate coherent interactions at cryogenic temperatures via the observation of efficient microwave-optical photon conversion. This hybrid interface makes a substantial step towards quantum communication at large scale, as well as novel explorations in microwave-optical photon entanglement and quantum sensing mediated by gigahertz phonons.

The absence of the single-photon nonlinearity has been a major roadblock in developing quantum photonic circuits at optical frequencies. In this paper, we demonstrate a periodically-poled thin film lithium niobate microring resonator (PPLNMR) that reaches 5,000,000%/W second harmonic conversion efficiency---almost 20-fold enhancement over the state-of-the-art---by accessing its largest $\chi^{(2)}$ tensor component $d_{33}$ via quasi-phase matching. The corresponding single photon coupling rate $g/2\pi$ is estimated to be 1.2 MHz, which is an important milestone as it approaches the dissipation rate $\kappa/2\pi$ of best available lithium niobate microresonators developed in the community. Using a figure of merit defined as $g/\kappa$, our devices reach a single photon nonlinearity approaching 1%. We show that, by further scaling of the device, it is possible to improve the single photon nonlinearity to a regime where photon-blockade effect can be manifested.

We demonstrate waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors on thin-film lithium niobate (LN). Using a 250 um-long NbN superconducting nanowire lithographically defined on top of a 125 um-long LN nanowaveguide, on-chip detection efficiency of 46% is realized with simultaneous high performance in dark count rate and timing jitter. As LN possesses high second-order nonlinear \c{hi}(2) and electro-optic properties, an efficient single-photon detector on thin-film LN opens up the possibility to construct small scale fully-integrated quantum photonic chip which includes single-photon sources, filters, tunable quantum gates and detectors.

In this article, we propose and numerically analyze an all dielectric biaxial metamaterial [ADBM] constructed by multilayer pattering of a sub-wavelength ridge array of Silicon and a flat SiO2 layer. The proposed ADBM can support Dyakonov Surface Waves [DSWs] with infinite propagation length which can propagate in a wide angular domain. Though natural uniaxial and biaxial materials and also nanowire all dielectric metamaterials can also support DSWs, the angular existence domain [AED] is limited to a very narrow range. Our proposed ADBM can support can overcome this limitation and it can achieve higher AED than any all dielectric structures reported in literature till date. Our proposed ADBM can be easily fabricated by the current fabrication technology. Due to its lossless nature, it may find substantial applications in optical sensing, optical interconnects, wave-guiding, solar energy harvesting etc.

In this article, a few-layered graphene-dielectric multilayer (metamaterial) electro-optic modulator has been proposed in the mid and far infrared range that works on electro-absorption mechanism. Graphene, both mono layer and few layer, is an actively tunable optical material that allows control of inter-band and intra-band transition by tuning its chemical potential. Utilizing this unique feature of graphene, we propose a multilayer graphene dielectric stack where few layer graphene is preferred over mono layer graphene. Although the total thickness of the stack still remains in the nanometer range, this device can exhibit superior performances in terms of (i) high modulation depth, (ii) ultra-broadband performance, (iii) ultra-low insertion loss due to inherent metamaterial properties, (iv)nano-scale footprint, (v) polarization independence and (vi) capability of being integrated to a silicon waveguide. Interestingly, these superior performances, achievable by using few layer graphene with carefully designed metamaterial, may not be possible with mono layer graphene. Our proposals have been validated by both the effective medium theory and general transfer matrix method.

In this article, a 2D plasmonic waveguide loaded with all dielectric anisotropic metamaterial, consisting of alternative layers of Si-SiO2, has been theoretically proposed and numerically analyzed. Main characteristics of waveguide i.e. propagation constant, propagation length and normalized mode area have been calculated for different values of ridge width and height at telecommunication wavelength. The respective 1D structure of the waveguide has been analytically solved for the anisotropic ridge as a single uniaxial medium with dielectric tensor defined by Effective Medium Theory (EMT). The 2D structure has been analyzed numerically through FEM simulation using Mode analysis module in Comsol Multiphysics. Both the EMT and real multilayer structure have been considered in numerical simulations. Such structure with all dielectric metamaterial provides an extra degree of freedom namely fill factor, fraction of Si layer in a Si-SiO2 unit cell, to tune the propagation characteristics compared to the conventional DLSSP waveguide. A wide range of variations in all the characteristics have been observed for different fill factor values. Besides, the effect of the first interface layer has also been considered. Though all dielectric metamaterial has already been utilized in photonic waveguide as cladding, the implementation in plasmonic waveguide has not been investigated yet to our best knowledge. The proposed device might be a potential in deep sub-wavelength optics, PIC and optoelectronics.