Electrically induced adiabatic frequency conversion in an integrated lithium niobate ring resonator

Area of Science:

• Integrated photonics
• Nonlinear optics
• Materials science

Background:

• Precise control of optical frequencies is crucial for integrated photonics.
• Existing on-chip frequency conversion methods lack continuous tuning capabilities.
• Fixed or difficult-to-tune on-chip light sources necessitate external frequency adjustment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To achieve continuous on-chip optical frequency conversion.
• To demonstrate electrical tuning of a lithium niobate ring resonator for frequency conversion.
• To enable dynamic control of light within an optical cavity.

Main Methods:

• Electrically tuning a lithium niobate ring resonator.
• Inducing adiabatic frequency conversion via voltage control.
• Utilizing radio frequency (RF) control to adjust resonator refractive index.

Main Results:

• Achieved frequency shifts of up to 14.3 GHz.
• Demonstrated continuous tuning of the optical frequency.
• Showcased dynamic control of light within the resonator's photon lifetime.

Conclusions:

• Electrical tuning of lithium niobate ring resonators provides a viable method for continuous on-chip optical frequency conversion.
• This technique offers precise dynamic control over light frequencies in integrated photonic systems.
• The approach overcomes limitations of previous discrete frequency shifting methods.