Mesoscopic Limit Cycles in Coupled Nanolasers.

Two coupled nanolasers exhibit a mode switching transition, theoretically described by mode beating limit cycle oscillations. Their decay rate is vanishingly small in the thermodynamic limit, i.e., when the spontaneous emission noise tends to zero. We provide experimental statistical evidence of mesoscopic limit cycles (∼10^{3} intracavity photons). Specifically, we show that the order parameter quantifying the limit cycle amplitude can be reconstructed from the mode intensity statistics. We observe a maximum of the averaged amplitude at the mode switching, accounting for limit cycle oscillations. We finally relate this maximum to a dip of mode cross-correlations, reaching a minimum of g_{ij}^{(2)}=2/3, which we show to be a mesoscopic limit. Coupled nanolasers are thus an appealing test bed for the investigation of spontaneous breaking of time translation symmetry in the presence of strong quantum fluctuations.

Discrete photonics resonator in coupled waveguide arrays.

We demonstrate both theoretically and experimentally that discrete diffraction resonance can be designed, fabricated, and successfully probed in functionalized - guidonic - coupled waveguide arrays. We evidence that double-barrier patterning of the coupling creates wavelength-independent angular tunnel resonance in the transmitted and the reflected intensity of light beams freely propagating in the plane of the array. Transmission peaks obtained are associated with resonant excitation of the engineered array bound supermodes of the functionalized array, in agreement with accurate and practical numerical modeling based on extended coupled-mode theory. The linear operation of the guidonic resonant tunneling double barrier makes up an original resonator for discrete photonics, suitable for all-optical control of light.

High contrast reflection modulation near 1.55mum in InP 2D photonic crystals on silicon wafer.

We report on reflection modulation results near 1.55 mum in InP-based two-dimensional photonic crystals. The fabrication technology uses a polymeric bonding technique to integrate the InP thin-slab onto a Silicon wafer. Reflectivity modulation greater than 90% is obtained by pumping at 810 nm with optical excitation densities of 15 muJ/cm(2). The resulting optical broadband modulation is based on the saturation of absorption of InGaAs quantum wells at a photonic mode frequency tunable by lithography.