Abstract

Photonic Crystal Cavities (PCCs) can provide subwavelength field confinement with very high quality factors Q, enabling new applications in the field of solid-state quantum information processing (QIP). However, the precise control of their resonant wavelength is difficult and methods for tuning it over several 10s of nm, keeping a high Q factor, are needed. In this work we developed a new device structure which can fulfill all these requirements. It is based on the electromechanical actuation of two parallel InGaAsP membranes. Tuning is achieved by changing the effective index of the double slab waveguide displacing one of the membranes with an electrostatic field. We implemented such a mechanism using a Nano Electro Mechanical Structure (NEMS) based on the reverse biasing of a p-i-n junction similarly as what has been done for tunable VCSELs [1]. The main advantages of this tuning method compared to existing approaches are the potentially large tuning range, the conservation of the cavity’s quality factor [2], and the compatibility with low-temperature operation.

© 2011 Optical Society of America