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Ayed Al Sayem

Publications and source records attributed to Ayed Al Sayem.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
arXiv2026

Unveiling charge dynamics on the generation of high extinction wide pulse generation on thin-film lithium tantalate

We experimentally demonstrate high-extinction optical pulse generation in thin-film lithium tantalate (TFLT), achieving a wide range of pulse widths with sharp rise and fall edges, without measurable distortion or long temporal tails. We further provide a direct one-to-one comparison with thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) modulators under identical measurement conditions. Our results reveal that the distorted pulse response observed in TFLN originates from charge activation and transport, whereas the distortion-free response in TFLT is enabled by the substantially larger activation energy of defect-related charge carriers. This larger activation barrier suppresses leakage-current-induced charging dynamics, thereby enabling stable and distortion-free pulse generation. The successful generation of high-extinction, distortion-free optical pulses in TFLT can play a significant role in integrated quantum photonic technologies, particularly for qubit preparation, measurement, and fast feedback circuits.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2026

Stable thin-film lithium tantalate modulators operating at high temperature for uncooled operation

We demonstrate stable operation of a thin-film lithium tantalate (TFLT) modulator at very high operating temperatures. We show that the electro-optic modulation and bandwidth of the TFLT modulators are not affected by high-temperature operation, and both waveguide and resonant modulators are DC-bias stable even at 120°C. At higher temperatures, we even observe 10% reduction of the Vπ of the modulator. Our results position TFLT modulators as a strong candidate for uncooled operation in co-packaged optics.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2026

Lithium niobate quadratic integrated nonlinear photonics: enabling ultra-wide bandwidth and ultrafast photonic engines

Integrated photonic coherent light sources capable of generating emission with broad spectral coverage and ultrashort pulse durations are critical for both fundamental science and emerging technologies. In this Perspective, we start by discussing emerging quantum and classical photonic applications from the standpoint of operating wavelength and timescale, highlighting the technological gaps that persist in current integrated photonic light sources. Next, we introduce the unique properties of lithium niobate-based integrated quadratic nonlinear photonics, and discuss several promising strategies that exploit this platform to realize wavelength-tunable continuous wave light sources and broadband, ultra-short light pulse generation. We also assessed their advantages and limitations while discussing potential solutions. Finally, we outline future prospects and challenges that need to be addressed, aiming at inspiring continued research and innovation in this rapidly evolving field.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2025

A tunable FP Perot coupling interferometer on thin-film lithium niobate

We experimentally show an electro-optic tunable Fabry-Perot cavity on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). Instead of tuning the cavity phase and thus resonant frequency, we demonstrate modulation of the FP cavity by tuning the cavity mirrors via the electro-optic effect in the couplers. We enable full tuning of a low-Q FP cavity with only 3.5 V Vpi and a very short 3.5 mm long Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) mirror.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2023

Unveiling the origins of quasi-phase matching spectral imperfections in thin-film lithium niobate frequency doublers

Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) based frequency doublers have been widely recognized as essential components for both classical and quantum optical communications. Nonetheless, the efficiency of these devices is hindered by imperfections present in the quasi-phase matching (QPM) spectrum. In this study, we present a thorough analysis of the spectral imperfections in TFLN frequency doublers with varying lengths, ranging from 5 mm to 15 mm. Employing a non-destructive diagnostic method based on scattered light imaging, we identify the sources and waveguide sections that contribute to the imperfections in the QPM spectrum. Furthermore, by mapping the TFLN film thickness across the entire waveguiding regions, we successfully reproduce the QPM spectra numerically, thus confirming the prominent influence of film thickness variations on the observed spectral imperfections. This comprehensive investigation provides valuable insights into the identification and mitigation of spectral imperfections in TFLN-based frequency doublers, paving the way toward the realization of nonlinear optical devices with enhanced efficiency and improved spectral fidelity.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2022

Light-induced dynamic frequency shifting of microwave photons in a superconducting electro-optic converter

Hybrid superconducting-photonic microresonators are a promising platform for realizing microwave-to-optical transduction. However, the absorption of scattered photons by the superconductors leads to unintended microwave resonance frequency variation and linewidth broadening. Here, we experimentally study the dynamics of this effect and its impact on microwave-to-optics conversion in an integrated lithium niobate-superconductor hybrid resonator platform. We unveiled an adiabatic frequency shifting of the intracavity microwave photons induced by the fast photo-responses of the thin-film superconducting resonator. As a result, the temporal and spectral responses of electro-optics transduction are modified and well described by our theoretical model. This work provides important insights on the light-induced conversion dynamics which must be considered in future designs of hybrid superconducting-photonic system.

physics.app-ph↗
arXiv2021

Efficient and tunable blue light generation using lithium niobate nonlinear photonics

Thin film lithium niobate (LN) has recently emerged as a playground for chip-scale nonlinear optics and leads to highly efficient frequency conversions from near infrared to near-visible bands. For many nonlinear and quantum photonics applications, it is desirable to operate deep into the visible band within LN's transparency window. However, the strong material dispersion at short wavelengths makes phase-matching difficult, necessitating sub-micron scale control of domain structures for efficient quasi-phase-matching (QPM). Here we report the operation of thin film LN in the blue wavelength and high fidelity poling of thin-film LN waveguide to this regime. As a result, quasi-phase matching is realized between IR (871nm) and blue (435.5nm) wavelengths in a straight waveguide and prompts strong blue light generation with a conversion efficiency $2900\pm400\%W^{-1}cm^{-2}$

physics.optics↗
arXiv2021

Ultralow-threshold thin-film lithium niobate optical parametric oscillator

Materials with strong $χ^{(2)}$ optical nonlinearity, especially lithium niobate, play a critical role in building optical parametric oscillators (OPOs). However, chip-scale integration of low-loss $χ^{(2)}$ materials remains challenging and limits the threshold power of on-chip $χ^{(2)}$ OPO. Here we report the first on-chip lithium niobate optical parametric oscillator at the telecom wavelengths using a quasi-phase matched, high-quality microring resonator, whose threshold power ($\sim$30 $μ$W) is 400 times lower than that in previous $χ^{(2)}$ integrated photonics platforms. An on-chip power conversion efficiency of 11% is obtained at a pump power of 93 $μ$W. The OPO wavelength tuning is achieved by varying the pump frequency and chip temperature. With the lowest power threshold among all on-chip OPOs demonstrated so far, as well as advantages including high conversion efficiency, flexibility in quasi-phase matching and device scalability, the thin-film lithium niobate OPO opens new opportunities for chip-based tunable classical and quantum light sources and provides an potential platform for realizing photonic neural networks.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2021

Bidirectional electro-optic conversion reaching 1% efficiency with thin-film lithium niobate

Superconducting cavity electro-optics (EO) presents a promising route to coherently convert microwave and optical photons and distribute quantum entanglement between superconducting circuits over long-distance through an optical network. High EO conversion efficiency demands transduction materials with strong Pockels effect and excellent optical transparency. Thin-film Lithium Niobate (TFLN) offers these desired characteristics however so far has only delivered unidirectional conversion with efficiencies on the order of $10^{-5}$, largely impacted by its prominent photorefractive (PR) effect at cryogenic temperatures. Here we show that, by mitigating the PR effect and associated charge-screening effect, the device's conversion efficiency can be enhanced by orders of magnitude while maintaining stable cryogenic operation, thus allowing a demonstration of conversion bidirectionality and accurate quantification of on-chip efficiency. With the optimized monolithic integrated superconducting EO device based on TFLN-on-sapphire substrate, an on-chip conversion efficiency of 1.02% (internal efficiency, 15.2%) is realized. Our demonstration indicates that with further device improvement, it is feasible for TFLN to approach unitary internal conversion efficiency.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2020

Mitigating photorefractive effect in thin-filmlithium niobate microring resonators

Thin-film lithium niobate is an attractive integrated photonics platform due to its low optical loss and favorable optical nonlinear and electro-optic properties. However, in applications such as second harmonic generation, frequency comb generation, and microwave-to-optics conversion, the device performance is strongly impeded by the photorefractive effect inherent in thin-films. In this paper, we show that the dielectric cladding on lithium niobate microring resonator has a significant influence on the photorefractive effect. By removing the dielectric cladding layer, the photorefractive effect in lithium niobate ring resonators can be effectively mitigated. Our work presents a reliable approach to control the photorefractive effect on thin-film lithium niobate and will further advance the performance of integrated classical and quantum photonic devices based on thin-film lithium niobate.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2020

Photorefraction-induced Bragg scattering in cryogenic lithium niobate ring resonators

We report intracavity Bragg scattering induced by photorefractive (PR) effect in high-Q lithium niobate (LN) ring resonators at cryogenic temperatures. We show that, when a cavity mode is strongly excited, the PR effect imprints a long-lived periodic space-charge field. This residual field in turn creates a refractive index modulation pattern that dramatically enhances the back scattering of an incoming probe light, and results in selective and reconfigurable mode splittings. This PR-induced Bragg scattering effect, despite being undesired for many applications, could be utilized to enable optically programmable photonic components.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2020

Towards 1% single photon nonlinearity with periodically-poled lithium niobate microring resonators

The absence of the single-photon nonlinearity has been a major roadblock in developing quantum photonic circuits at optical frequencies. In this paper, we demonstrate a periodically-poled thin film lithium niobate microring resonator (PPLNMR) that reaches 5,000,000%/W second harmonic conversion efficiency---almost 20-fold enhancement over the state-of-the-art---by accessing its largest $χ^{(2)}$ tensor component $d_{33}$ via quasi-phase matching. The corresponding single photon coupling rate $g/2π$ is estimated to be 1.2 MHz, which is an important milestone as it approaches the dissipation rate $κ/2π$ of best available lithium niobate microresonators developed in the community. Using a figure of merit defined as $g/κ$, our devices reach a single photon nonlinearity approaching 1%. We show that, by further scaling of the device, it is possible to improve the single photon nonlinearity to a regime where photon-blockade effect can be manifested.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2020

Cavity piezo-mechanics for superconducting-nanophotonic quantum interface

Hybrid quantum systems are essential for the realization of distributed quantum networks. In particular, piezo-mechanics operating at typical superconducting qubit frequencies features low thermal excitations, and offers an appealing platform to bridge superconducting quantum processors and optical telecommunication channels. However, integrating superconducting and optomechanical elements at cryogenic temperatures with sufficiently strong interactions remains a tremendous challenge. Here, we report an integrated superconducting cavity piezo-optomechanical platform where 10-GHz phonons are resonantly coupled with photons in a superconducting and a nanophotonic cavities at the same time. Benefited from the achieved large piezo-mechanical cooperativity ($C_\mathrm{em}\sim7$) and the enhanced optomechanical coupling boosted by a pulsed optical pump, we demonstrate coherent interactions at cryogenic temperatures via the observation of efficient microwave-optical photon conversion. This hybrid interface makes a substantial step towards quantum communication at large scale, as well as novel explorations in microwave-optical photon entanglement and quantum sensing mediated by gigahertz phonons.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2019

Lithium-Niobate-on-Insulator Waveguide-Integrated Superconducting Nanowire Single-Photon Detectors

We demonstrate waveguide-integrated superconducting nanowire single-photon detectors on thin-film lithium niobate (LN). Using a 250 um-long NbN superconducting nanowire lithographically defined on top of a 125 um-long LN nanowaveguide, on-chip detection efficiency of 46% is realized with simultaneous high performance in dark count rate and timing jitter. As LN possesses high second-order nonlinear \c{hi}(2) and electro-optic properties, an efficient single-photon detector on thin-film LN opens up the possibility to construct small scale fully-integrated quantum photonic chip which includes single-photon sources, filters, tunable quantum gates and detectors.

physics.app-ph↗
arXiv2017

All Dielectric Biaxial Metamaterial: A New Route to Lossless Dyakonov Waves with Higher Angular Existence Domain

In this article, we propose and numerically analyze an all dielectric biaxial metamaterial [ADBM] constructed by multilayer pattering of a sub-wavelength ridge array of Silicon and a flat SiO2 layer. The proposed ADBM can support Dyakonov Surface Waves [DSWs] with infinite propagation length which can propagate in a wide angular domain. Though natural uniaxial and biaxial materials and also nanowire all dielectric metamaterials can also support DSWs, the angular existence domain [AED] is limited to a very narrow range. Our proposed ADBM can support can overcome this limitation and it can achieve higher AED than any all dielectric structures reported in literature till date. Our proposed ADBM can be easily fabricated by the current fabrication technology. Due to its lossless nature, it may find substantial applications in optical sensing, optical interconnects, wave-guiding, solar energy harvesting etc.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2016

All Dielectric Metamaterial Loaded Tunable Plasmonic Waveguide

In this article, a 2D plasmonic waveguide loaded with all dielectric anisotropic metamaterial, consisting of alternative layers of Si-SiO2, has been theoretically proposed and numerically analyzed. Main characteristics of waveguide i.e. propagation constant, propagation length and normalized mode area have been calculated for different values of ridge width and height at telecommunication wavelength. The respective 1D structure of the waveguide has been analytically solved for the anisotropic ridge as a single uniaxial medium with dielectric tensor defined by Effective Medium Theory (EMT). The 2D structure has been analyzed numerically through FEM simulation using Mode analysis module in Comsol Multiphysics. Both the EMT and real multilayer structure have been considered in numerical simulations. Such structure with all dielectric metamaterial provides an extra degree of freedom namely fill factor, fraction of Si layer in a Si-SiO2 unit cell, to tune the propagation characteristics compared to the conventional DLSSP waveguide. A wide range of variations in all the characteristics have been observed for different fill factor values. Besides, the effect of the first interface layer has also been considered. Though all dielectric metamaterial has already been utilized in photonic waveguide as cladding, the implementation in plasmonic waveguide has not been investigated yet to our best knowledge. The proposed device might be a potential in deep sub-wavelength optics, PIC and optoelectronics.

physics.optics↗
arXiv2015

Broad Angle Negative Refraction in Lossless all Dielectric Multilayer Asymmetric Anisotropic Metamaterial

In this article, it has been theoretically shown that broad angle negative refraction is possible with asymmetric anisotropic metamaterials constructed by only dielectrics or loss less semiconductors at the telecommunication and relative wavelength range. Though natural uniaxial materials can exhibit negative refraction, the maximum angle of negative refraction and critical incident angle lie in a very narrow range. This notable problem can be overcome by our proposed structure. In our structures, negative refraction originates from the highly asymmetric elliptical iso-frequency.This is artificially created by the rotated multilayer sub-wavelength dielectric/semiconductor stack, which act as an effective asymmetric anisotropic metamaterial.This negative refraction is achieved without using any negative permittivity materials such as metals. As we are using simple dielectrics, fabrication of such structures would be less complex than that of the metal based metamaterials. Our proposed ideas have been validated numerically and also by the full wave simulations considering both the effective medium approach and realistic structure model. This device might find some important applications in photonics and optoelectronics.

physics.optics↗