International Business Machines Corporation

Rainer Friedbert Mahrt

Nikolaj Moll

Thilo H C Stoeferle

Armin W Knoll

Thilo Hermann Stoeferle

Fei Ding

Urs T Duerig

Darius Urbonas

Gabriele Raino

Thilo Hermann Curt Stoeferle

Thilo Hermann Curt Stöferle

Sophie Schoenenberger

Kristian Gotthold Baumann

Michael A Becker

Fabio Scafirimuto

A device having a layered structure that includes a layer of phase change material and a matrix material layer having embedding quantum emitters is tuned. An electric field is applied through the matrix material layer and the layer of phase change material to change the emission wavelengths of the quantum emitters. A phase of the phase change material is changed, in a non-volatile manner, in each of one or more of local areas of the phase change material, to form local alterations that are opposite to respective ones of the quantum emitters in the matrix material layer, to locally modify the electric field at the respective quantum emitters.

Tuning emission wavelengths of quantum emitters via a phase change material

A method to configure an optical device. The method may rely on an optical device that includes two parallel mirrors extending, each, parallel to a reference plane, and an active material extending between the mirrors. An average plane of the active material is parallel to said reference plane, so as to form an optical resonator. The active material is energized so as to non-volatilely alter a refractive index and/or an optical absorption in one or more regions of said material. This results in forming one or more cavities, respectively, in which light can be laterally confined, in-plane with said average plane, in addition to being confined between the mirrors, along a direction perpendicular to said reference plane. Each of the one or more cavities has an altered mode profile compared to a non-altered region of the active material. Related methods and optical devices are also disclosed.

Non-volatilely programmable optical devices and methods to configure such optical devices

An optical sensor apparatus is disclosed. The apparatus comprises: a sample holder, configured to hold a sample, in operation; a probe, comprising an arrangement of luminescent quantum dots; an optical source, configured to optically excite the luminescent quantum dots; an optical detector, configured to read optical signals from the quantum dots; and a circuit. The circuit is connected to the optical detector and configured to determine correlations between optical signals read by the optical detector. The probe is positioned or positionable relatively to, e.g., at a distance from, the sample, such that optical signals transmitted by each of the quantum dots are influenced by the sample, in operation. The present invention is further directed to related methods of operation and fabrication methods.

Optical sensor with luminescent quantum nanoprobes

A method of fabrication of a micro-optics device included providing a layer of material; patterning the layer of material by one or more of: locally unzipping and desorbing molecules thereof, with a nano-scale dimensioned probe, to obtain a curved surface for the layer of material, the curved surface having a curved profile in a plane section; and completing a layer structure perpendicular to the plane section by providing one or more additional layers of material in contact with the curved surface to obtain the micro-optics device, wherein the micro-optics device has the layer structure, with a given layer thereof comprising a defect delimited by two surfaces, wherein one of the two surfaces is the curved surface.

Fabrication of a micro-optics device with curved surface defects

A vertical microcavity having a layer structure perpendicular to a vertical axis z, includes a first reflector and a second reflector, each comprising one or more material layers; a confinement layer between the reflectors, wherein an electromagnetic wave can be substantially confined, the confinement layer having a body and a defect delimited by first and second surfaces, perpendicular to the vertical axis z; wherein one of the two surfaces is contiguous with the body, the other one contiguous with a layer of the first or second reflector, and wherein one of the two surfaces has a curved profile in at least a plane section perpendicular to the layer structure, the curved profile having a vertex, which defines a maximal thickness hof the defect between the first surface and the second surface in the plane section, the maximal thickness hbeing less than a thickness of the contiguous layer.

Vertical microcavity with curved surface defects

A high quality factor optical resonator structure includes a substrate, a center disc formed on the substrate, and a plurality of concentric grating rings surrounding the center disc. The concentric rings are spaced apart from the center disc and from one another by regions of lower index of refraction material with respect thereto, and wherein spacing between the grating rings and the center disc is non-periodic such that a magnitude of a displacement distance of a given grating ring with respect to a &#x3bb;/4 Bragg reflector geometry is largest for a first of the grating rings immediately adjacent the center disk and decreases in a radially outward direction.

Radial Bragg ring resonator structure with high quality factor

Various embodiments of an optical switch device are provided. In one embodiment, the optical switch device includes a substrate. A photonic crystal, having a dielectric material, is applied on the substrate. An optical gain layer, having an optical gain material, is disposed above the photonic crystal. The photonic crystal is formed with a second-order distributed feedback structure to emit laser light perpendicular to a plane of the photonic crystal and a first-order distributed feedback structure adapted for reflecting light in the plane of the photonic crystal back into the second-order distributed feedback structure. The first-order distributed feedback structure at least one of fully surrounds the second-order distributed feedback structure and is arranged on two opposing edges of the second-order distributed feedback structure.

Optical wavelength switch

A surface-emitting photonic device including a structure disposed therein to enhance a performance thereof. The structure includes a two dimensionally periodic second order distributed feedback device (DFB) to emit diffraction limited outcoupled laser light having a predetermined wavelength along a propagation direction that is substantially normal to a plane of the DFB, and a first order distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) coplanar with, adjacent to and surrounding the DFB, a geometry of the DBR being selected such that a bandgap of the DBR is maximized and centered around the predetermined wavelength of the emitted light, a substrate, and either an optical gain layer, or a semi-conductor quantum well laser disposed within the substrate.

Enhanced surface-emitting photonic device

An optical switch, comprising an optical resonator, a first input optical waveguide optically coupled to the optical resonator for guiding a first optical signal to the optical resonator; a second input optical waveguide optically coupled to the optical resonator for guiding a second optical signal to the optical resonator; and an output optical waveguide optically coupled to the optical resonator for guiding a third optical signal from the optical resonator, wherein the optical resonator has a first region and at least one separate second region made of different materials, at least one of which is non-linear to cause different resonance frequencies of the optical resonator for different intensities of light.

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Meilen, Switzerland

Rainer Friedbert Mahrt