Nonlinear Optical Response in Coupled Quantum Wells Optomechanical microcavity

We investigate the optical properties of a hybrid solid-state optomechanical microcavity containing two coupled quantum wells interacting with the cavity mode in the presence of a third-order nonlinear medium and a mechanically compliant distributed Bragg reflector (MC-DBR). The MC-DBR interacts with the cavity mode via the nonlinear radiation pressure effect. The steady-state mean-field analysis shows the existence of optical bistability, which can be utilized to design all-optical tunable switches. The coupling between the two quantum wells, the interaction between the excitons and the optical mode, the Kerr nonlinearity, and the optomechanical interaction can be tuned to operate the optical switch at lower input laser power. The fluctuation dynamics demonstrate the presence of optomechanically induced transparency (OMIT) and optomechanically induced absorption (OMIA). We find that both OMIT and OMIA can be manipulated efficiently by optomechanical coupling strength and the quantum well tunneling rate.

Novel perovskite solar cell with Distributed Bragg Reflector

This paper reports numerical modeling of perovskite solar cell which has been knotted with Distributed Bragg Reflector pairs to extract high energy efficiency. The geometry of the proposed cells is simulated with three different kinds of perovskite materials including CH3NH3PbI3, CH3NH3PbBr3, and CH3NH3SnI3. The toxic perovskite material based on Lead iodide and lead bromide appears to be more efficient as compared to non-toxic perovskite material. The executed simulated photovoltaic parameters with the highest efficient structure are open circuit voltage = 1.409 (V), short circuit current density = 24.09 mA/cm2, fill factor = 86.18%, and efficiency = 24.38%. Moreover, a comparison of the current study with different kinds of structures has been made and surprisingly our novel geometry holds enhanced performance parameters that are featured with back reflector pairs (Si/SiO2). The applied numerical approach and presented designing effort of geometry are beneficial to obtain results that have the potential to address problems with less efficient thin-film solar cells.

Understanding the photon-photon resonance of DBR lasers using mode expansion method

A theoretical model based on the mode expansion of the traveling wave equations is developed to investigate the mode interaction processes behind the photon-photon resonance (PPR) effect in distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) lasers. With dual-mode rate equations, strength of mode interactions is characterized by the cross power and the coupling factors, which arise from the non-orthogonality of the main mode and the PPR mode. Small signal analysis and large-signal dynamics are performed, and results indicate that the cross power is a key contributor to the PPR effect.

Optimized Thin-Film Organic Solar Cell with Enhanced Efficiency

Modification of a cell’s architecture can enhance the performance parameters. This paper reports on the numerical modeling of a thin-film organic solar cell (OSC) featuring distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) pairs. The utilization of DBR pairs via the proposed method was found to be beneficial in terms of increasing the performance parameters. The extracted results showed that using DBR pairs helps capture the reflected light back into the active region by improving the photovoltaic parameters as compared to the structure without DBR pairs. Moreover, implementing three DBR pairs resulted in the best enhancement gain of 1.076% in power conversion efficiency. The measured results under a global AM of 1.5G were as follows: open circuit voltage (Voc) = 0.839 V; short circuit current density (Jsc) = 10.98 mA/cm2; fill factor (FF) = 78.39%; efficiency (η) = 11.02%. In addition, a thermal stability analysis of the proposed design was performed and we observed that high temperature resulted in a decrease in η from 11.02 to 10.70%. Our demonstrated design may provide a pathway for the practical application of OSCs.

Extended bound states in the continuum in a one-dimensional grating implemented on a distributed Bragg reflector

Bound states in the continuum (BICs) are observed in optical cavities composed of a high refractive index periodic structure embedded in significantly lower refractive index surroundings, enabling vertical confinement of the grating modes. Here, we propose a vertically nonsymmetric configuration, implemented on a high refractive index bulk substrate with a one-dimensional grating positioned on a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR). In this configuration, the grating modes are leaky, which could prohibit the creation of a BIC if the grating was implemented on uniform substrate. However, the judiciously designed DBR on which the grating is implemented reflects nonzero diffraction orders induced by the grating. We found that the laterally antisymmetric optical modes located at the center of the Brillouin zone of this structure create BICs that are robust against changes in the grating parameters, as long as the DBR reflects the diffraction orders. The configuration enables a high degree of design freedom, facilitating the realization of very high quality factor cavities in conventional all-semiconductor technology.

Optimal Design and Noise Analysis of High-Performance DBR-Integrated Lateral Germanium (Ge) Photodetectors for SWIR Applications

This work presents the high-performance Si/SiO2distributed Bragg reflector (DBR)-integrated lateral germanium (Ge) p-i-n photodetectors (PDs) for atmospheric gas sensing and fiber-optic telecommunication networks in the short-wave infrared (SWIR) regime. In addition, this study also proposes an opto-electronic compact small-signal noise equivalent circuit model (SSNECM) of the designed device to compute the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the output of the detector. Various figure-of merits including current under dark and illumination, responsivity, detectivity, 3dB bandwidth, and the SNR of the proposed device are estimated at the room-temperature (RT) for an incident optical power of 0.5 μW. Furthermore, the impact of scaling of rib waveguide (WG) width and height on dark current, responsivity, and 3dB bandwidth are investigated to optimize the proposed device. The validation of the proposed model is done by comparing various parameters including dark current, responsivity, and detectivity of the designed device with other Ge PDs. The estimated results show the reduced trade-off between responsivity and 3dB bandwidth of the designed device. At λ=1550 nm, the proposed device achieves the high detectivity and SNR of >2X1011 Jones and 120 dB (up to 3 THz), respectively, with the bias voltage of -2V. These encouraging results pave the path for the future development of low noise and high-speed detectors for SWIR applications.