arXiv subjects

Rémy Braive

Publications and source records attributed to Rémy Braive.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Integrated nano electro-optomechanical spiking neuron

Neuromorphic computing offers a pathway toward energy-efficient processing of data, yet hardware platforms combining nanoscale integration and multimodal functionality remain scarce. Here we demonstrate a gallium-phosphide electro-optomechanical spiking neuron that integrates optical and electromechanical interfaces within a single nanostructure on a silicon photonic chip operating at telecommunication wavelengths (1550 nm) and exploiting a 3 gigahertz-frequency mechanical mode. Our device displays excitable dynamics, generating optical spikes at its output, as in the spiking activity of neurons and cardiac cells and defined by the calibrated all-or-none response to external perturbations. This dynamic is consistent with the saddle-node on invariant circle scenario and associated features are demonstrated including control of excitable threshold, temporal summation and refractory period. Our device compact footprint and its CMOS-compatible platform make it well suited for edge-computing applications requiring low latency and establish a foundation for versatile brain-inspired optomechanical computing and advanced on-chip optical pulse sources.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

Regenerative vectorial breathers in a delay-coupled neuromorphic microlaser with integrated saturable absorber

We report on the polarization dynamics of regenerative light pulses in a micropillar laser with integrated saturable absorber coupled to an external feedback mirror. The delayed self-coupled microlaser is operated in the excitable regime, where it regenerates incident pulses with a supra-threshold intensity -- resulting in a pulse train with inter-pulse period approximately given by the feedback delay time, in analogy with a self-coupled biological neuron. We report the experimental observation of vectorial breathers in polarization angle, manifesting themselves as a modulation of the linear polarized intensity components without significant modulation of the total intensity. Numerical analysis of a suitable model reveals that the observed polarization mode competition is a consequence of symmetry-breaking bifurcations induced by polarization anisotropy. Our model reproduces well the observed experimental results and predicts different regimes as a function of the polarization anisotropy parameters and the pump parameter. We believe that these findings are relevant for the fabrication of flexible sources of polarized pulses with controlled properties, as well as for neuroinspired on-chip computing applications, where the polarization may be used to encode or process information in novel ways.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2024

A two-dimensional gallium phosphide optomechanical crystal in the resolved-sideband regime

Faithful quantum state transfer between telecom photons and microwave frequency mechanical oscillations necessitate a fast conversion rate and low thermal noise. Two-dimensional (2D) optomechanical crystals (OMCs) are favorable candidates that satisfy those requirements. 2D OMCs enable sufficiently high mechanical frequency (1$\sim$10 GHz) to make the resolved-sideband regime achievable, a prerequisite for many quantum protocols. It also supports higher thermal conductance than 1D structures, mitigating the parasitic laser absorption heating. Furthermore, gallium phosphide (GaP) is a promising material choice thanks to its large electronic bandgap of 2.26 eV, which suppresses two-photon absorption, and high refractive index $n$ = 3.05 at the telecom C-band, leading to a high-$Q$ optical mode. Here, we fabricate and characterize a 2D OMC made of GaP. We realize a high optical $Q$-factor of $7.9\times 10^{4}$, corresponding to a linewidth $κ/2π$ = 2.5 GHz at the telecom frequency 195.6 THz. This optical mode couples to several mechanical modes, whose frequencies all exceed the cavity linewidth. The most strongly coupled mode oscillates at 7.7 GHz, more than 3 times the optical linewidth, while achieving a substantial vacuum optomechanical coupling rate $g_{\mathrm{0}}/2π$ = 450 kHz. This makes the platform a promising candidate for a long-lived, deterministic quantum memory for telecom photons at low temperatures.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Ultra-low-noise Microwave to Optics Conversion in Gallium Phosphide

Mechanical resonators can act as excellent intermediaries to interface single photons in the microwave and optical domains due to their high quality factors. Nevertheless, the optical pump required to overcome the large energy difference between the frequencies can add significant noise to the transduced signal. Here we exploit the remarkable properties of thin-film gallium phosphide to demonstrate bi-directional on-chip conversion between microwave and optical frequencies, realized by piezoelectric actuation of a Gigahertz-frequency optomechanical resonator. The large optomechanical coupling and the suppression of two-photon absorption in the material allows us to operate the device at optomechanical cooperativities greatly exceeding one. Alternatively, when using a pulsed upconversion pump, we demonstrate that we induce less than one thermal noise phonon. We include a high-impedance on-chip matching resonator to mediate the mechanical load with the 50-Ohm source. Our results establish gallium phosphide as a versatile platform for ultra-low-noise conversion of photons between microwave and optical frequencies.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2022

Merging and disconnecting resonance tongues in a pulsing excitable microlaser with delayed optical feedback

Excitability, encountered in numerous fields from biology to neurosciences and optics, is a general phenomenon characterized by an all-or-none response of a system to an external perturbation. When subject to delayed feedback, excitable systems can sustain multistable pulsing regimes, which are either regular or irregular time sequences of pulses reappearing every delay time. Here, we investigate an excitable microlaser subject to delayed optical feedback and study the emergence of complex pulsing dynamics, including periodic, quasiperiodic and irregular pulsing regimes. This work is motivated by experimental observations showing these different types of pulsing dynamics. A suitable mathematical model, written as a system of delay differential equations, is investigated through an in-depth bifurcation analysis. We demonstrate that resonance tongues play a key role in the emergence of complex dynamics, including non-equidistant periodic pulsing solutions and chaotic pulsing. The structure of resonance tongues is shown to depend very sensitively on the pump parameter. Successive saddle transitions of bounding saddle-node bifurcations constitute a merging process that results in unexpectedly large locking regions, which subsequently disconnect from the relevant torus bifurcation curve; the existence of such unconnected regions of periodic pulsing is in excellent agreement with experimental observations. As we show, the transition to unconnected resonance regions is due to a general mechanism: the interaction of resonance tongues locally at an extremum of the rotation number on a torus bifurcation curve. We present and illustrate the two generic cases of disconnecting and of disappearing resonance tongues. Moreover, we show how a maximum and a minimum of the rotation number appears naturally when two torus bifurcation curves undergo a saddle transition (where they connect differently).

math.DS↗

arXiv2022

Determining Young's modulus via the eigenmode spectrum of a nanomechanical string resonator

We present a method for the in-situ determination of Young's modulus of a nanomechanical string resonator subjected to tensile stress. It relies on measuring a large number of harmonic eigenmodes and allows to access Young's modulus even for the case of a stress-dominated frequency response. We use the proposed framework to obtain the Young's modulus of four different wafer materials, comprising the three different material platforms amorphous silicon nitride, crystalline silicon carbide and crystalline indium gallium phosphide. The resulting values are compared with theoretical and literature values where available, revealing the need to measure Young's modulus on the sample material under investigation for precise device characterization.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2022

Random number generation with a chaotic electromechanical resonator

Chaos enables the emergence of randomness in deterministic physical systems. Therefore it can be exploited for the conception of true random number generators (RNG) mandatory in classical cryptography applications. Meanwhile, nanomechanical oscillators, at the core of many on-board functionalities such as sensing, reveal as excellent candidates to behave chaotically. This is made possible thanks to intrinsic mechanical nonlinearities emerging at the nanoscale. Here we present a platform gathering a nanomechanical oscillator and its integrated capacitive actuation. Using a modulation of the resonant force induced by the electrodes, we demonstrate chaotic dynamics and study how it depends on the dissipation of the system. The randomness of a binary sequence generated from a chaotic time trace is evaluated and discussed such that the generic parameters enabling successful random number generation can be established. This demonstration makes use of concepts which are sufficiently general to be applied to the next generation of nano-electro-optomechanical systems.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2021

Vibrational resonance amplification in a thermo-optic optomechanical nanocavity

Vibrational resonance amplifies a weak low-frequency signal by use of an additional non-resonant high-frequency modulation. The realization of weak signal enhancement in integrated nonlinear optical nanocavities is of great interest for nanophotonic applications where optical signals may be of low power. Here, we report experimental observation of vibrational resonance in a thermo-optically bistable photonic crystal optomechanical resonator with an amplification up to +16 dB. The characterization of the bistability can interestingly be done using a mechanical resonance of the membrane, which is submitted to a strong thermo-elastic coupling with the cavity.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Floquet control of optomechanical bistability in multimode systems

Cavity optomechanical systems enable fine manipulation of nanomechanical degrees of freedom with light, adding operational functionality and impacting their appeal in photonic technologies. We show that distinct mechanical modes can be exploited with a temporally modulated laser drive to steer between bistable steady states induced by changes of cavity radiation pressure. We investigate the influence of thermo-optic nonlinearity on these Floquet dynamics and find that it can inhibit or enhance the performance of the coupling mechanism in contrast to their often performance limiting character. Our results provide new techniques for the characterization of thermal properties and the control of optomechanical systems in sensing and computational applications

physics.optics↗

arXiv2021

Universal length dependence of tensile stress in nanomechanical string resonators

We investigate the tensile stress in freely suspended nanomechanical string resonators, and observe a material-independent dependence on the resonator length. We compare strongly stressed sting resonators fabricated from four different material systems based on amorphous silicon nitride, crystalline silicon carbide as well as crystalline indium gallium phosphide. The tensile stress is found to increase by approximately 50% for shorter resonators. We establish a simple elastic model to describe the observed length dependence of the tensile stress. The model accurately describes our experimental data. This opens a perspective for stress-engineering the mechanical quality factor of nanomechanical string resonators.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2020

Slow propagation of 2 GHz acoustical waves in a suspended GaAs on insulator phononic waveguide

Optoelectronic oscillators have dominated the scene of microwave oscillators in the last few years thanks to their great performances regarding frequency stability and phase noise. However, miniaturization of such a device is an up to date challenge. Recently, devices based on phonon-photon interaction gather a lot of interest thanks to their extreme compactness and working frequency directly in the GHz. In this frame, a still missing element to obtain long-term frequency stability performances is an on-chip delay within the feedback loop. Here, we experimentally show filtering and slow propagation of 2 GHz acoustic waves on a Gallium Arsenide membrane heterogeneously integrated on silicon wafer. By engineering the dispersion of an acoustical waveguide, we evidence a group velocity below 1000 m/s for the mode able to propagate. Thus, an integrated delay implementation is at reach for potential improvement of opto-acoustic devices such as optomechanical oscillators or wireless applications.

physics.app-ph↗

arXiv2020

Bichromatic synchronized chaos in coupled optomechanical nanoresonators

Synchronization and chaos are two well known and ubiquitous phenomena in nature. Interestingly, under specific conditions, coupled chaotic systems can display synchronization in some of their observables. Here, we experimentally investigate bichromatic synchronization on the route to chaos of two non-identical mechanically coupled optomechanical nanocavities. Electromechanical near-resonant excitation of one of the resonators evidences hysteretic behaviors of the coupled mechanical modes which can, under amplitude modulation, reach the chaotic regime. The observations, allowing to measure directly the full phase space of the system, are accurately modeled by coupled periodically forced Duffing resonators thanks to a complete calibration of the experimental parameters. This shows that, besides chaos transfer from the mechanical to the optical frequency domain, spatial chaos transfer between the two nonidentical subsystems occurs. Upon simultaneous excitations of the coupled membranes modes, we also demonstrate bichromatic chaos synchronization between quadratures at the two distinct carrier frequencies of the normal modes. Their respective quadrature amplitudes are consistently synchronized thanks to the modal orthogonality breaking induced by the nonlinearity. Meanwhile, their phases show complex dynamics with imperfect synchronization in the chaotic regime. Our generic model agrees again quantitatively with the observed synchronization dynamics. These results set the ground for the experimental study of yet unexplored collective dynamics of e.g synchronization in arrays of strongly coupled, nanoscale nonlinear oscillators for applications ranging from precise measurements to multispectral chaotic encryption and random bit generation, and to analog computing, to mention a few.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2019

Gallium phosphide as a piezoelectric platform for quantum optomechanics

Recent years have seen extraordinary progress in creating quantum states of mechanical oscillators, leading to great interest in potential applications for such systems in both fundamental as well as applied quantum science. One example is the use of these devices as transducers between otherwise disparate quantum systems. In this regard, a promising approach is to build integrated piezoelectric optomechanical devices, that are then coupled to microwave circuits. Optical absorption, low quality factors and other challenges have up to now prevented operation in the quantum regime, however. Here, we design and characterize such a piezoelectric optomechanical device fabricated from gallium phosphide in which a 2.9~GHz mechanical mode is coupled to a high quality factor optical resonator in the telecom band. The large electronic bandgap and the resulting low optical absorption of this new material, on par with devices fabricated from silicon, allows us to demonstrate quantum behavior of the structure. This not only opens the way for realizing noise-free quantum transduction between microwaves and optics, but in principle also from various color centers with optical transitions in the near visible to the telecom band.

quant-ph↗

arXiv2019

Equalization of pulse timings in an excitable microlaser system with delay

An excitable semiconductor micropillar laser with delayed optical feedback is able to regenerate pulses by the excitable response of the laser. It has been shown that almost any pulse sequence can, in principle, be excited and regenerated by this system over short periods of time. We show experimentally and numerically that this is not true anymore in the long term: rather, the system settles down to a stable periodic orbit with equalized timing between pulses. Several such attracting periodic regimes with different numbers of equalized pulse timing may coexist and we study how they can be accessed with single external optical pulses of sufficient strength that need to be timed appropriately. Since the observed timing equalization and switching characteristics are generated by excitability in combination with delayed feedback, our results will be of relevance beyond the particular case of photonics, especially in neuroscience.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2019

Optomechanical Gigahertz Oscillator made of a Two Photon Absorption free piezoelectric III/V semiconductor

Oscillators in the GHz frequency range are key building blocks for telecommunication, timing and positioning applications. Operating directly in the GHz and compactness while keeping high frequency stability, is still an up-to-date challenge. Recently, optomechanical crystals, compact by nature, have demonstrated GHz frequency modes, thus gathering prerequisite features for using them as oscillators. Here we report on the demonstration, in ambient atmospheric conditions, of an optomechanical oscillator designed with an original concept based on bichromatic one-dimensional optomechanical crystal. Self sustained oscillations directly at 3 GHz are routinely achieved with a low optical power threshold of 40 $μW$ and short-term linewidth narrowed down to 100 Hz in agreement with phase noise measurements (-113 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz from the carrier) for free running optomechanical oscillators. This oscillator is made of InGaP, low loss and TPA-free piezoelectric material which makes it valuable for optomechanics.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2018

Intrinsic properties of suspended MoS2 on SiO2/Si pillar arrays for nanomechanics and optics

Semiconducting 2D materials, such as transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDs), are emerging in nanomechanics, optoelectronics, and thermal transport. In each of these fields, perfect control over 2D material properties including strain, doping, and heating is necessary, especially on the nanoscale. Here, we study clean devices consisting of membranes of single-layer MoS2 suspended on pillar arrays. Using Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopy, we have been able to extract, separate and simulate the different contributions on the nanoscale and to correlate these to the pillar array design. This control has been used to design a periodic MoS2 mechanical membrane with a high reproducibility and to perform optomechanical measurements on arrays of similar resonators with a high-quality factor of 600 at ambient temperature, hence opening the way to multi-resonator applications with 2D materials. At the same time, this study constitutes a reference for the future development of well-controlled optical emissions within 2D materials on periodic arrays with reproducible behavior. We measured a strong reduction of the MoS2 band-gap induced by the strain generated from the pillars. A transition from direct to indirect band gap was observed in isolated tent structures made of MoS2 and pinched by a pillar. In fully suspended devices, simulations were performed allowing both the extraction of the thermal conductance and doping of the layer. Using the correlation between the influences of strain and doping on the MoS2 Raman spectrum, we have developed a simple, elegant method to extract the local strain in suspended and non-suspended parts of a membrane. This opens the way to experimenting with tunable coupling between light emission and vibration.

cond-mat.mes-hall↗

arXiv2018

Phase Stochastic Resonance in a forced nano-electromechanical oscillator

Stochastic resonance is a general phenomenon usually observed in one-dimensional, amplitude modulated, bistable systems.We show experimentally the emergence of phase stochastic resonance in the bidimensional response of a forced nano-electromechanical membrane by evidencing the enhancement of a weak phase modulated signal thanks to the addition of phase noise. Based on a general forced Duffing oscillator model, we demonstrate experimentally and theoretically that phase noise acts multiplicatively inducing important physical consequences. These results may open interesting prospects for phase noise metrology or coherent signal transmission applications in nanomechanical oscillators. Moreover, our approach, due to its general character, may apply to various systems.

physics.optics↗

arXiv2017

Thermal Excitation of Broadband and Long-range Surface Waves on SiO 2 Submicron Films

We detect thermally excited surfaces waves on a submicron SiO 2 layer, including Zenneck and guided modes in addition to Surface Phonon Polaritons. The measurements show the existence of these hybrid thermal-electromagnetic waves from near-(2.7 $μ$m) to far-(11.2 $μ$m) infrared. Their propagation distances reach values on the order of the millimeter, several orders of magnitude larger than on semi-infinite systems. These two features, spectral broadness and long range propagation, make these waves good candidates for near-field applications both in optics and thermics due to their dual nature.

physics.optics↗