Ultra-Low-Power Hybrid Light-Matter Solitons
Abstract
New functionalities in nonlinear optics will require systems with giant optical nonlinearity as well as compatibility with photonic circuit fabrication techniques. Here we introduce a new platform based on strong light-matter coupling between waveguide photons and quantum-well excitons. On a sub-millimeter length scale we generate sub-picosecond bright temporal solitons at a pulse energy of only 0.5 pico-Joules. From this we deduce an unprecedented nonlinear refractive index 3 orders of magnitude larger than in any other ultrafast system. We study both temporal and spatio-temporal nonlinear effects and for the first time observe dark-bright spatio-temporal solitons. Theoretical modelling of soliton formation in the strongly coupled system confirms the experimental observations. These results show the promise of our system as a high speed, low power, integrated platform for physics and devices based on strong interactions between photons.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1409.0725,
title = {Ultra-Low-Power Hybrid Light-Matter Solitons},
author = {L. Tinkler and P. M. Walker and D. V. Skryabin and A. Yulin and B. Royall and I. Farrer and D. A. Ritchie and D. N. Krizhanovskii and M. S. Skolnick},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1409.0725},
year = {2014}
}