Ultrafast optical gating in a nonlinear lithium niobate microcavity

Abstract

Recent advances in optical simulation and computational techniques have renewed interest in high-finesse optical cavities for applications such as enhancing light-matter interactions, engineering complex photonic band structures, and storing quantum information. However, the extended interaction times enabled by these cavities often come at the cost of slow optical read-out protocols and limited control over system transients. To address this challenge, we demonstrate an ultrafast intra-cavity optical gating scheme in a high-finesse, second-order nonlinear microcavity incorporating a thin-film of lithium niobate. A femtosecond optical gate pulse -- tuned to the transparency region of the cavity's dielectric mirrors -- achieves instantaneous up-conversion of the intra-cavity field via sum-frequency generation. The resulting upconverted signal exits the cavity as a short pulse, providing space- and time-resolved, on-demand access to the intra-cavity state. We validate this approach by tracking the dynamics of multiple resonant modes excited in a plano-concave distributed Bragg reflector microcavity, showing close agreement with analytical models. Additionally, we demonstrate that stimulated intra-cavity difference-frequency generation can efficiently instantiate cavity modes on femtosecond timescales. This gating scheme is fully compatible with low-temperature microcavity experiments, paving the way for advanced quantum state storage, retrieval, and real-time control of light-matter interactions.