Sub-nanosecond light-pulse generation with waveguide-coupled carbon nanotube transducers

Felix Pyatkov; Svetlana Khasminskaya; Vadim Kovalyuk; Frank Hennrich; Manfred M Kappes; Gregory N Goltsman; Wolfram H P Pernice; Ralph Krupke

doi:10.3762/bjnano.8.5

Sub-nanosecond light-pulse generation with waveguide-coupled carbon nanotube transducers

Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2017 Jan 5:8:38-44. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.8.5. eCollection 2017.

Authors

Felix Pyatkov^#^{1

2}, Svetlana Khasminskaya^#¹, Vadim Kovalyuk^{1

3}, Frank Hennrich¹, Manfred M Kappes^{1

4}, Gregory N Goltsman^{3

5}, Wolfram H P Pernice⁶, Ralph Krupke^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Nanotechnology, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 76021, Germany.
² Department of Materials and Earth Sciences, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Darmstadt 64287, Germany.
³ Department of Physics, Moscow State Pedagogical University, Moscow 119992, Russia.
⁴ Institute of Physical Chemistry, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe 76021, Germany.
⁵ National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow 101000, Russia.
⁶ Institute of Physics, University of Münster, Münster 48149, Germany.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have recently been integrated into optical waveguides and operated as electrically-driven light emitters under constant electrical bias. Such devices are of interest for the conversion of fast electrical signals into optical ones within a nanophotonic circuit. Here, we demonstrate that waveguide-integrated single-walled CNTs are promising high-speed transducers for light-pulse generation in the gigahertz range. Using a scalable fabrication approach we realize hybrid CNT-based nanophotonic devices, which generate optical pulse trains in the range from 200 kHz to 2 GHz with decay times below 80 ps. Our results illustrate the potential of CNTs for hybrid optoelectronic systems and nanoscale on-chip light sources.

Keywords: carbon nanotubes; infrared; integrated optics devices; nanomaterials.

Grants and funding

R.K. and F.P. acknowledge funding by the Volkswagen Foundation. W.P. acknowledges support by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) grants PE 1832/1-1 & PE 1832/2-1 and the Helmholtz Association through grant HIRG-0005. W.P. also acknowledges support by the DFG and the State of Baden-Württemberg through the DFG-Center for Functional Nanostructures (CFN). F.H., M.M.K.and R.K. acknowledge support by Helmholtz Association through program Science and Technology of Nanosystems (STN) and by the Karlsruhe Nano Micro Facility (KNMF). V.K. and G.G. acknowledge financial support by Russian Foundation for Basic Research (RFBR) grant No. 15-02-07787 and State Contract No.14.B25.31.0007.