On-Chip Strong Coupling and Efficient Frequency Conversion between Telecom and Visible Optical Modes

Phys Rev Lett. 2016 Sep 16;117(12):123902. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.117.123902. Epub 2016 Sep 16.

Abstract

While the frequency conversion of photons has been realized with various approaches, the realization of strong coupling between optical modes of different colors has never been reported. Here, we present an experimental demonstration of strong coupling between telecom (1550 nm) and visible (775 nm) optical modes on an aluminum nitride photonic chip. The nonreciprocal normal-mode splitting is demonstrated as a result of the coherent interference between photons with different colors. Furthermore, a wideband, bidirectional frequency conversion with 0.14 on-chip conversion efficiency and a bandwidth up to 1.2 GHz is demonstrated.