Photorefraction-induced Bragg scattering in cryogenic lithium niobate ring resonators

2020/12/19 by Yuntao Xu, Ayed Al Sayem, Xu, Yuntao +7
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Photonic and Optical Devices #Advanced Fiber Laser Technologies #Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics

paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.2012.10775

Abstract

We report intracavity Bragg scattering induced by photorefractive (PR) effect in high-Q lithium niobate (LN) ring resonators at cryogenic temperatures. We show that, when a cavity mode is strongly excited, the PR effect imprints a long-lived periodic space-charge field. This residual field in turn creates a refractive index modulation pattern that dramatically enhances the back scattering of an incoming probe light, and results in selective and reconfigurable mode splittings. This PR-induced Bragg scattering effect, despite being undesired for many applications, could be utilized to enable optically programmable photonic components.

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