Tunable laser induced periodic surface structures in Ge2Sb2Te5 thin films

Planar photonic structures, such as gratings and metasurfaces, are routinely used for beam steering, waveguide coupling, and light localization. However, conventional fabrication techniques that involve lithography are demanding in terms of time and cost. Much cheaper and simpler methods for surface patterning and formation of periodic surface structures are enabled by direct laser processing. Here, we demonstrate low-cost rapid fabrication of high-quality phase gratings based on the formation of laser induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS, or ripples) in Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) thin films. Due to unique phase change properties of GST, the structures demonstrate strong modulation of refractive index with period controlled by the wavelength of laser irradiation. We study the formation of phase change LIPSS in a broad range of excitation wavelengths and observe transition between regimes with different orientations of generated ripples with respect to laser polarization.

Phase Dislocations in Hollow Core Waveguides

This paper discusses the basic concepts of phase dislocations and vortex formation in the electric fields of fundamental air core mode of hollow core waveguides with specific types of rotational symmetry of the core‐cladding boundary. Analysis of the behavior of the electric field phase in the transmission bands shows that the mechanism of light localization in the hollow core waveguides with discrete rotational symmetry of the core-cladding boundary cannot be completely described by the ARROW model. For an accurate description of the phase behavior, it is necessary to account for phase jumps of the magnitude of π when passing through the phase dislocations.

Light Localization and Principal Mode Propagation in Optical Fibers

The capacity of optical fiber communications has grown exponentially since its implementation decades ago. Optical fiber amplifiers, wavelength division multiplexing, and coherent communications have all enabled discontinuous growth. Space division multiplexing is proposed as the next discontinuity. Here tens of modes rather than a single mode are utilized in the transmission. Random scattering due to index fluctuations within the optical fiber cause coupling among the modal channels thereby degrading signal transmission. Principal mode transmission overcomes this limitation. Here a set of modes arrive localized at the fiber output unscattered. We review this methodology as it relates to optical communication capacity, but also as it relates to light localization. We also review the characterization of these modes both theoretically and experimentally.

Modeling the optical properties of twisted bilayer photonic crystals

We demonstrate a photonic analog of twisted bilayer graphene that has ultra-flat photonic bands and exhibits extreme slow-light behavior. Our twisted bilayer photonic device, which has an operating wavelength in the C-band of the telecom window, uses two crystalline silicon photonic crystal slabs separated by a methyl methacrylate tunneling layer. We numerically determine the magic angle using a finite-element method and the corresponding photonic band structure, which exhibits a flat band over the entire Brillouin zone. This flat band causes the group velocity to approach zero and introduces light localization, which enhances the electromagnetic field at the expense of bandwidth. Using our original plane-wave continuum model, we find that the photonic system has a larger band asymmetry. The band structure can easily be engineered by adjusting the device geometry, giving significant freedom in the design of devices. Our work provides a fundamental understanding of the photonic properties of twisted bilayer photonic crystals and opens the door to the nanoscale-based enhancement of nonlinear effects.

Small footprint optoelectrodes using ring resonators for passive light localization

The combination of electrophysiology and optogenetics enables the exploration of how the brain operates down to a single neuron and its network activity. Neural probes are in vivo invasive devices that integrate sensors and stimulation sites to record and manipulate neuronal activity with high spatiotemporal resolution. State-of-the-art probes are limited by tradeoffs involving their lateral dimension, number of sensors, and ability to access independent stimulation sites. Here, we realize a highly scalable probe that features three-dimensional integration of small-footprint arrays of sensors and nanophotonic circuits to scale the density of sensors per cross-section by one order of magnitude with respect to state-of-the-art devices. For the first time, we overcome the spatial limit of the nanophotonic circuit by coupling only one waveguide to numerous optical ring resonators as passive nanophotonic switches. With this strategy, we achieve accurate on-demand light localization while avoiding spatially demanding bundles of waveguides and demonstrate the feasibility with a proof-of-concept device and its scalability towards high-resolution and low-damage neural optoelectrodes.