Coherent Control of Topological States in an Integrated Waveguide Lattice.

Topological photonics holds the promise for enhanced robustness of light localization and propagation enabled by the global symmetries of the system. While traditional designs of topological structures rely on lattice symmetries, there is an alternative strategy based on accidentally degenerate modes of the individual meta-atoms. Using this concept, we experimentally realize topological edge state in an array of silicon nanostructured waveguides, each hosting a pair of degenerate modes at telecom wavelengths. Exploiting the hybrid nature of the topological mode, we implement its coherent control by adjusting the phase between the degenerate modes and demonstrating selective excitation of bulk or edge states. The resulting field distribution is imaged via third harmonic generation showing the localization of topological modes as a function of the relative phase of the excitations. Our results highlight the impact of engineered accidental degeneracies on the formation of topological phases, extending the opportunities stemming from topological nanophotonic systems.

Quantum Dot Emission Driven by Mie Resonances in Silicon Nanostructures.

Resonant dielectric nanostructures represent a promising platform for light manipulation at the nanoscale. In this paper, we describe an active photonic system based on Ge(Si) quantum dots coupled to silicon nanodisks. We show that Mie resonances govern the enhancement of the photoluminescent signal from embedded quantum dots due to a good spatial overlap of the emitter position with the electric field of Mie modes. We identify the coupling mechanism, which allows for engineering the resonant Mie modes through the interaction of several nanodisks. In particular, the mode hybridization in a nanodisk trimer results in an up to 10-fold enhancement of the luminescent signal due to the excitation of resonant antisymmetric magnetic and electric dipole modes.

Coupling of Germanium Quantum Dots with Collective Sub-radiant Modes of Silicon Nanopillar Arrays.

In this paper, we demonstrate the infrared photoluminescence emission from Ge(Si) quantum dots coupled with collective Mie modes of silicon nanopillars. We show that the excitation of band edge dipolar modes of a linear nanopillar array results in strong reshaping of the photoluminescence spectra. Among other collective modes, the magnetic dipolar mode with the polarization along the array axis contributes the most to the emission spectrum, exhibiting an experimentally measured Q-factor of around 500 for an array of 11 pillars. The results belong to the first experimental evidence of light emission enhancement of quantum emitters applying collective Mie resonances in finite nanoresonators and therefore represent an important contribution to the new field of active all-dielectric meta-optics.

Dynamics of Broadband Lasing Cascade from a Single Dot-in-well InGaAs Microdisk.

The development of a fast semiconductor laser is required for the realization of next-generation telecommunication applications. Since lasers operating on quantum dot ground state transitions exhibit only limited gain due to the saturation effect, we investigate lasing from excited states and compare its corresponding static and dynamic behavior to the one from the ground state. InAs quantum dots (QDs) grown in dot-in-well (DWELL) structures allowed to obtain light emission from ground and three excited states in a spectral range of 1.0-1.3 µm. This emission was coupled to whispering gallery modes (WGMs) of a 6 µm microdisk resonator and studied at room temperature by steady-state and time-resolved micro-photoluminescence. We demonstrate a cascade development of lasing arising from the ladder of quantum dot states, and compare the lasing behavior of ground and excited state emission. While the lasing threshold is being increased from the ground state to the highest excited state, the dynamic behavior is improved: turn-on times and lifetimes of WGMs become shorter paving the way towards high frequency direct driven microlasers.