26 Nov 2025 - 12:30 to 26 Nov 2025 - 13:30
Solid State Auditorium
The increase in demand for computation and the associated energy spending have been
motivating the exploration of photonic analog computing schemes, to exploiting their
superior bandwidth and improved energetic e:iciency. To that end, nonlinear fibers and
integrated waveguides based on thin-film LiNbO3 have become the dominant platforms of
research, supporting, for example, optical parametric amplifiers and oscillatiors1, optical
switches2, and coherent Ising machines3. However, realizing similar functionalities in a
surface emitting geometry has the potential to complementarily promote massively parallel
and spatially encoded computing and simulations, as well as quantum information and
image-processing4.
In this talk, I will present recent results from our work towards this objective, using highfinesse
distributed Bragg-reflector (DBR)- based surface-emitting microcavities, embedded
with LiNbO3 as a second-order nonlinear material. Specifically, I will show how sum- and
di:erence-frequency generation within the cavity allow to instantaneously switch optical
signals into or out of the cavity5. This intracavity optical gating then allows following the
spatio-temporal dynamics of the resonant optical fields and their light-matter interactions.
It will be useful for following the evolution of simulation and computation processes, and for
schemes for deterministic quantum information storage and extraction5. As an outlook, I will
discuss our plans for developing optical parametric oscillators using similar vertical DBR
microcavities4, as platforms for surface light emission, image phase-sensitive amplification,
or squeezed light generation.
References:
1. McKenna, T. P. et al. Ultra-low-power second-order nonlinear optics on a chip. Nat. Commun. 13, 4532
(2022).
2. Guo, Q. et al. Femtojoule femtosecond all-optical switching in lithium niobate nanophotonics. Nat.
Photonics 16, 625–631 (2022).
3. Yamamoto, Y. et al. Coherent Ising machines—optical neural networks operating at the quantum limit. Npj
Quantum Inf. 3, 1–15 (2017).
4. Yanagimoto, R. et al. Design and function of a vertical micro-cavity optical parametric oscillator. J. Phys.
Photonics 7, 045031 (2025).
5. Karni, O., Vaswani, C. & Chervy, T. Ultrafast optical gating in a nonlinear lithium niobate microcavity.
Preprint at https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2510.11965 (2025).
