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Imaging nanophotonic modes of microresonators using a focused ion beam

Nature Photonics volume 10, pages 35–39 (2016)Cite this article

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Abstract

Optical microresonators have proven powerful in a wide range of applications1, including cavity quantum electrodynamics2,3,4, biosensing5, microfludics6, cavity optomechanics7,8,9 and optical frequency combs10. Their performance depends critically on the exact distribution of optical energy, confined and shaped by the nanoscale device geometry. Near-field optical probes11 can image this distribution, but the physical probe necessarily perturbs the near field, which is particularly problematic for sensitive high-quality-factor resonances12,13. We present a new approach to mapping nanophotonic modes that uses a controllably small and local optomechanical perturbation introduced by a focused lithium ion beam14. An ion beam (radius of ≈50 nm) induces a picometre-scale deformation of the resonator surface, which we detect through shifts in the optical resonance wavelengths. We map five modes of a silicon microdisk resonator (Q ≥ 20,000) with high spatial and spectral resolution. Our technique also enables in situ observation of ion implantation damage and relaxation dynamics in a silicon lattice15,16.

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Figure 1: Schematic of the measurement.
Figure 2: Optical transmission through the microdisk cavity.
Figure 3: Comparisons of radial scan measurements and simulations.

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Acknowledgements

The authors thank N. Zhitenev for proposing the initial experiments that led to this work, and K. Dill for assistance preparing the image in Fig 1b. K.A.T. and J.Z. acknowledge support under the Cooperative Research Agreement between the University of Maryland and the National Institute of Standards and Technology Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, award no. 70NANB10H193, through the University of Maryland.

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Author notes

  1. Kevin A. Twedt and Jie Zou: These authors contributed equally to this work

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, 20899, Maryland, USA

    Kevin A. Twedt, Jie Zou, Marcelo Davanco, Kartik Srinivasan, Jabez J. McClelland & Vladimir A. Aksyuk

  2. Maryland Nanocenter, University of Maryland, College Park, 20742, Maryland, USA

    Kevin A. Twedt & Jie Zou

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Contributions

K.A.T., J.Z., J.J.M. and V.A.A. designed the experiments. J.Z. and V.A.A. fabricated and characterized the microdisk. K.A.T. and J.J.M. operated the lithium ion beam instrument. K.A.T. and J.Z. analysed the data and wrote the draft manuscript. M.D. and K.S. performed the optical modelling and mode perturbation calculations. All authors contributed to interpreting the data and editing the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Vladimir A. Aksyuk.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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Twedt, K., Zou, J., Davanco, M. et al. Imaging nanophotonic modes of microresonators using a focused ion beam. Nature Photon 10, 35–39 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2015.248

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