Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit

Undesirable light scattering is a fundamental cause for photon loss in nanophotonics. Rayleigh backscattering can be particularly difficult to avoid in wave-guiding systems and arises from both material defects and geometric defects at the subwavelength scale. It has recently been shown that systems...

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Main Authors: Örsel Oğulcan E., Noh Jiho, Bahl Gaurav
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: De Gruyter 2024-01-01
Series:Nanophotonics
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2023-0431
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author Örsel Oğulcan E.
Noh Jiho
Bahl Gaurav
author_facet Örsel Oğulcan E.
Noh Jiho
Bahl Gaurav
author_sort Örsel Oğulcan E.
collection DOAJ
description Undesirable light scattering is a fundamental cause for photon loss in nanophotonics. Rayleigh backscattering can be particularly difficult to avoid in wave-guiding systems and arises from both material defects and geometric defects at the subwavelength scale. It has recently been shown that systems exhibiting chiral dispersion due to broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS) can naturally mitigate Rayleigh backscattering, yet this has never been explored in integrated photonics. Here we demonstrate the dynamic suppression of disorder-induced Rayleigh backscattering in integrated photonics even when defects are clearly present. Our experiments are performed using lithium niobate on insulator resonators in which TRS is broken through an electrically-driven acousto-optic interaction. We experimentally observe near-complete suppression of Rayleigh backscattering within the resonator by measuring the optical states and through direct measurements of the back-scattered light. We additionally provide a new and intuitive generalization argument that explains this suppression of backscattering as a form of topological protection in synthetic space.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2192-8606
2192-8614
language English
publishDate 2024-01-01
publisher De Gruyter
record_format Article
series Nanophotonics
spelling doaj-art-5e3daafc52c04b48b42018e380d3d99c2024-11-25T11:19:10ZengDe GruyterNanophotonics2192-86062192-86142024-01-0113217318110.1515/nanoph-2023-0431Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuitÖrsel Oğulcan E.0Noh Jiho1Bahl Gaurav2Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, Urbana, USADepartment of Mechanical Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL61801, USADepartment of Mechanical Science & Engineering, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL61801, USAUndesirable light scattering is a fundamental cause for photon loss in nanophotonics. Rayleigh backscattering can be particularly difficult to avoid in wave-guiding systems and arises from both material defects and geometric defects at the subwavelength scale. It has recently been shown that systems exhibiting chiral dispersion due to broken time-reversal symmetry (TRS) can naturally mitigate Rayleigh backscattering, yet this has never been explored in integrated photonics. Here we demonstrate the dynamic suppression of disorder-induced Rayleigh backscattering in integrated photonics even when defects are clearly present. Our experiments are performed using lithium niobate on insulator resonators in which TRS is broken through an electrically-driven acousto-optic interaction. We experimentally observe near-complete suppression of Rayleigh backscattering within the resonator by measuring the optical states and through direct measurements of the back-scattered light. We additionally provide a new and intuitive generalization argument that explains this suppression of backscattering as a form of topological protection in synthetic space.https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2023-0431acousto-opticstime-reversal symmetry breakingintegrated photonicschiral dispersionbackscatteringrayleigh scattering
spellingShingle Örsel Oğulcan E.
Noh Jiho
Bahl Gaurav
Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit
Nanophotonics
acousto-optics
time-reversal symmetry breaking
integrated photonics
chiral dispersion
backscattering
rayleigh scattering
title Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit
title_full Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit
title_fullStr Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit
title_full_unstemmed Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit
title_short Electrically-controlled suppression of Rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit
title_sort electrically controlled suppression of rayleigh backscattering in an integrated photonic circuit
topic acousto-optics
time-reversal symmetry breaking
integrated photonics
chiral dispersion
backscattering
rayleigh scattering
url https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2023-0431
work_keys_str_mv AT orselogulcane electricallycontrolledsuppressionofrayleighbackscatteringinanintegratedphotoniccircuit
AT nohjiho electricallycontrolledsuppressionofrayleighbackscatteringinanintegratedphotoniccircuit
AT bahlgaurav electricallycontrolledsuppressionofrayleighbackscatteringinanintegratedphotoniccircuit