A tunable optical Kerr switch based on a nanomechanical resonator coupled to a quantumdot

Abstract

We have theoretically demonstrated the large enhancement of the optical Kerr effect in ascheme of a nanomechanical resonator coupled to a quantum dot and shown that thisphenomenon can be used to realize a fast optical Kerr switch by turning the control field onor off. Due to the vibration of the nanoresonator, as we pump on the strong controlbeam, the optical spectrum shows that the magnitude of this optical Kerr effect isproportional to the intensity of the control field. In this case, a fast and tunableoptical Kerr switch can be implemented easily by an intensity-adjustable laser.Based on this tunable optical Kerr switch, we also provide a detection method tomeasure the frequency of the nanomechanical resonator in this coupled system.