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Ultrafast all‐optical order‐to‐chaos transition in silicon photonic crystal chips
Author(s) -
Bruck Roman,
Liu Changxu,
Muskens Otto L.,
Fratalocchi Andrea,
Falco Andrea
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
laser and photonics reviews
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.778
H-Index - 116
eISSN - 1863-8899
pISSN - 1863-8880
DOI - 10.1002/lpor.201600086
Subject(s) - photonics , ultrashort pulse , laser , chaotic , resonator , physics , silicon photonics , photonic crystal , nonlinear optics , optics , optical chaos , optoelectronics , nonlinear system , silicon , perturbation (astronomy) , quantum chaos , wavelength , photonic metamaterial , optical physics , semiconductor laser theory , quantum , quantum mechanics , quantum dynamics , computer science , plasma , artificial intelligence
The interaction of light with nanostructured materials provides exciting new opportunities for investigating classical wave analogies of quantum phenomena. A topic of particular interest forms the interplay between wave physics and chaos in systems where a small perturbation can drive the behavior from the classical to chaotic regime. Here, we report an all‐optical laser‐driven transition from order to chaos in integrated chips on a silicon photonics platform. A square photonic crystal microcavity at telecom wavelengths is tuned from an ordered into a chaotic regime through a perturbation induced by ultrafast laser pulses in the ultraviolet range. The chaotic dynamics of weak probe pulses in the near infrared is characterized for different pump‐probe delay times and at various positions in the cavity, with high spatial accuracy. Our experimental analysis, confirmed by numerical modelling based on random matrices, demonstrates that nonlinear optics can be used to control reversibly the chaotic behavior of light in optical resonators.