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Fractional Optical Angular Momentum and Multi-Defect-Mediated Mode Renormalization and Orientation Control in Photonic Crystal Microring Resonators

Mingkang Wang, Feng Zhou, Xiyuan Lu, Andrew McClung, Marcelo Davanco, Vladimir A. Aksyuk, and Kartik Srinivasan
Phys. Rev. Lett. 129, 186101 – Published 28 October 2022
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Abstract

Whispering gallery modes (WGMs) in circularly symmetric optical microresonators exhibit integer quantized angular momentum numbers due to the boundary condition imposed by the geometry. Here, we show that incorporating a photonic crystal pattern in an integrated microring can result in WGMs with fractional optical angular momentum. By choosing the photonic crystal periodicity to open a photonic band gap with a band-edge momentum lying between that of two WGMs of the unperturbed ring, we observe hybridized WGMs with half-integer quantized angular momentum numbers (mZ+1/2). Moreover, we show that these modes with fractional angular momenta exhibit high optical quality factors with good cavity-waveguide coupling and an order of magnitude reduced group velocity. Additionally, by introducing multiple artificial defects, multiple modes can be localized to small volumes within the ring, while the relative orientation of the delocalized band-edge states can be well controlled. Our Letter unveils the renormalization of WGMs by the photonic crystal, demonstrating novel fractional angular momentum states and nontrivial multimode orientation control arising from continuous rotational symmetry breaking. The findings are expected to be useful for sensing and metrology, nonlinear optics, and cavity quantum electrodynamics.

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  • Received 2 February 2022
  • Accepted 26 September 2022

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.129.186101

© 2022 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Atomic, Molecular & OpticalCondensed Matter, Materials & Applied Physics

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A Möbius Strip for Light

Published 28 October 2022

A ring-shaped waveguide with a particular pattern of notches can force a light wave to make two round trips before completing an integer number of wave cycles.

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Authors & Affiliations

Mingkang Wang1,2, Feng Zhou1,3, Xiyuan Lu1,3,*, Andrew McClung4, Marcelo Davanco1, Vladimir A. Aksyuk1, and Kartik Srinivasan1,3,†

  • 1Microsystems and Nanotechnology Division, Physical Measurement Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland 20899, USA
  • 2Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  • 3Joint Quantum Institute, NIST/University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
  • 4Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, Massachusetts 01003, USA

  • *xiyuan.lu@nist.gov
  • kartik.srinivasan@nist.gov

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Issue

Vol. 129, Iss. 18 — 28 October 2022

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