Published papers

We present a dynamically modulated ring resonator on a Si CMOS platform, hosting a synthetic dimension lattice over 180 GHz. The frequency and time domain synthetic band structure was acquired and photonic transport phenomena were explored.

We fabricated a sophisticated Si photonic integrated circuit for investigating topological photonics SSH model. In the selective excitation and observation of SSH coupled microrings, we observed the wavefunctions of edge and bulk modes.

We fabricated a sophisticated Si photonic integrated circuit for investigating topological photonics SSH model. In the selective excitation and observation of SSH coupled microrings, we observed the wavefunctions of edge and bulk modes.

We report a quantum-dot single-photon source (QD SPS) hybrid integrated on a silicon waveguide embedding a photonic crystal mirror, which reflects photons and enables efficient unidirectional output from the waveguide. The silicon waveguide is constituted of a subwavelength grating so as to maintain the high efficiency even under the presence of stacking misalignment accompanied by hybrid integration processes. Experimentally, we assembled the hybrid photonic structure by transfer printing and demonstrated single-photon generation from a QD and its unidirectional output from the waveguide. These results point out a promising approach toward scalable integration of SPSs on silicon quantum photonics platforms.

We report the hybrid integration of a telecom band InAs/InP quantum-dot (QD) single-photon source on a CMOS-processed Si photonics chip using transfer printing. The integration technique allows for the assembly of photonic components in a pick-and-place operation and therefore can introduce them on Si photonics chips after completing the entire CMOS-compatible fabrication processes. We demonstrate telecom single-photon generation from an InAs/InP QD integrated on Si and its coupling into a waveguide. We also demonstrate the integration of a QD on a fiber-pigtailed Si chip and single-photon output through the optical fiber, showing a novel pathway for modularizing solid-state quantum light sources.

Epsilon-near-zero (ENZ) materials exhibit near-zero permittivity and induce various intriguing linear and nonlinear optical phenomena. Magneto-optical (MO) effects, which are notoriously weak in the optical domain, have been predicted to be significantly enhanced in ENZ materials, which can facilitate the realization of compact nonreciprocal devices. However, to date, enhanced MO effects have been predominantly observed in effective ENZ media, which are commonly based on complex combinations of photonic nanostructures. It is difficult for these effective media to achieve isotropic ENZ responses, which severely limits their use in the development of ENZ-MO devices. Here, enhanced MO effects in pristine indium tin oxide (ITO) with ENZ properties at technologically important telecommunication wavelengths are demonstrated. MO transmission (reflection) spectroscopy of ITO films with different ENZ wavelengths reveal Faraday (Kerr) rotation peaks around the respective ENZ (EN-one) wavelengths, demonstrating that these observations are due to the intrinsic properties of the ITO materials. The demonstrated mechanism of the MO effect enhancement is universal and can be applied to various ENZ materials, including those incorporating ferromagnetic materials. Native ENZ materials with enhanced MO responses will greatly expand the opportunities for the development of novel nonreciprocal nanophotonic devices, such as on-chip optical isolators and one-way topological waveguides.

We report the design of an ultrathin Faraday rotator consisting of a silicon photonic crystal (PhC) slab on a bismuth-substituted yttrium iron garnet (Bi:YIG) thin film. By directing light into guided modes in the Bi:YIG layer via diffraction in the PhC layer, we numerically demonstrate a Faraday rotation angle of ∼45° at a telecom wavelength with a Bi:YIG layer thickness of only ∼500 nm. This structure permits a high light transmittance of about 70%, enabled by electromagnetically induced transparency. The proposed design only requires nanopatterning of the Si layer, providing a viable route to practical ultrathin Faraday rotators.

We demonstrate a hybrid integrated laser by transfer printing an InAs/GaAs quantum dot (QD) amplifier on a Si waveguide with distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs). The QD waveguide amplifier of 1.6 mm long was patterned in the form of an airbridge with the help of a spin-on-glass sacrificial layer and precisely integrated on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide by pick-and-place assembly using an elastomer stamp. Laser oscillation was observed around the wavelength of 1250 nm with a threshold current of 47 mA at room temperature and stable operation up to 80°C. Transfer printing of the long QD amplifiers will enable the development of various hybrid integrated laser devices that leverage superior properties of QDs as laser gain medium.

In this work, we fabricate directly modulated membrane distributed reflector (DR) lasers on a Si waveguide by utilizing micro-transfer printing method. Micro-transfer printing enables low-loss coupling between the lasers and the silicon photonics circuit, and since it is a back-end process, we can test the lasers prior to integration. A membrane laser is as thick as the Si waveguides, which makes optical coupling between the two quite easy. In addition, membrane lasers with a lateral p-i-n diode structure have low capacitance and a large optical confinement factor, which means they can achieve a low threshold current and high-speed modulation operation with low energy consumption. The fabricated membrane DR laser integrated with a 220-nm-thick Si waveguide exhibits a low threshold current of 1.2 mA and single-mode operation at 1535 nm with a side-mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of about 40 dB at the bias current of 14 mA. It also achieves the E-O bandwidth of over 25 GHz and 50-Gbit/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) signal modulation with an extinction ratio of 2.5 dB.

All-dielectric metasurfaces based on ferrimagnetic iron garnets are a promising platform for realizing ultra-compact magneto-optical (MO) devices with low loss. However, ferrimagnetic iron garnets are notorious for being intractable on fine nanopatterning, hindering the faithful fabrication of designed nanostructures. In this regard, it is important to assess the influence of fabrication imperfections on the performance of MO metasurfaces. Here, we investigate the optical properties of a MO metasurface with structural imperfections. As the most typical fabrication error, we studied the impact of the tilted side walls of cylindrical garnet disks that constitute the metasurfaces. We found that tilting the side walls drastically degrades the MO response and light transmittance of the device. Nevertheless, it was also found that the performance can be recovered by optimizing the refractive index of the material covering the upper half of the nanodisks.

We investigate laser emission at the interface of the topological and trivial phases in one dimension. The system is described by a generalized Su-Schrieffer-Heeger model with site-dependent hopping parameters involving the interface width parameter where gain (loss) is introduced only to the A (B) sites of the bipartite lattice. The topological interface state is described by the Jackiw-Rebbi state with a pure imaginary energy, reflecting the non-Hermiticity of the system. It feels only the gain effect since it is strictly localized at the A sites. The Jackiw-Rebbi state exists for any value of the interface width. We, thus, obtain a large area single-mode laser by making the interface width wide enough. We also find a series of analytic solutions of excited states based on supersymmetry (SUSY) quantum mechanics where the A and B sites of the bipartite lattice form SUSY partners. Furthermore, we study the system containing loss and gain with saturation by extending the Jackiw-Rebbi mode to a nonlinear theory.

A microdisk resona tor ba sed on monocrysta lline yttrium iron ga rnet is reported. The 100-μm-dia meter microdisk in a 300-nm-thick ga rnet film a llows tight spa tia l confinement to enha nce ma gneto-optica l intera ctions. Experimenta lly, we observed a high Q of 2.1 × 104.

We report the fabrication of air-suspended photonic crystal nanocavities based on single-crystalline yttrium iron garnet (YIG). The unprecedented high-quality photonic nanostructures based on YIG will open the novel path to magneto-nanophotonics and quantum magnonics.

We demonstrate that double periodic modulations improve flat band light localization in bilayer one-dimensional moiré photonic crystals. Flatter optical bands were observed even at zero interlayer distance, accelerating their experimental realization and nanophotonics applications.

We designed nanobeam optical cavities based on moiré photonic crystals. An exponential increase of the Q factor as high as 107 with increasing moiré period was observed, while the mode volume remained small around 0.5(λ/η)3.

We fabricated integrated silicon coupled-ring resonators and measured photonic band structures for synthetic frequency lattices with different configurations. A phase difference between two modulation signals introduced a synthetic gauge flux, resulting in asymmetric band structures.

We fabricated integrated silicon coupled-ring resonators and measured photonic band structures for synthetic frequency lattices with different configurations. A phase difference between two modulation signals introduced a synthetic gauge flux, resulting in asymmetric band structures.

We fabricate directly modulated membrane lasers by micro-transfer printing and integrate a single-mode polymer waveguide after printing. An InP inverse taper waveguide is used as a spot-size converter for the polymer waveguide. Fiber-coupled mW-class output power and 100-Gbit/s signal modulation are achieved.

We fabricate directly modulated membrane distributed-reflector lasers on a Si platform using a micro-transfer printing method. Single-mode lasing with a low threshold current of 1.2 mA and 50-Gbaud-class direct modulation are demonstrated.