Electro-optic based adiabatic frequency conversion in a non-centrosymmetric microresonator

Abstract

A rather unknown method to perform optical frequency tuning is the adiabatic frequency conversion. But this method has some appealing advantages compared to conventional frequency conversion schemes, i. e. nonlinear- optical based ones: The internal conversion efficiency can reach unity even on a single-photon level. No threshold and no phase-matching conditions need to be fulfilled. Previous realizations of adiabatic frequency conversion suffer from short photon lifetimes, limited tuning range and challenging experimental setups. Here, we employ the Pockels effect for adiabatic frequency conversion (AFC) in a non-centrosymmetric ultrahigh-Q microresonator made out of lithium niobate. With a 70-μm-thick resonator we observe frequency shifts of more than 5 GHz by applying a moderate voltage of 20V. In contrast to former schemes our setup is considerably simplified and provides a linear electric-to-optical link that enables us to generate also arbitrary waveforms of frequency shifts. Furthermore, our presented conversion scheme is well-suited for on-chip fabrication. Volume fabrication and application of larger electric fields for reasonable voltages become possible. By doing this, it is feasible to achieve tuning on the order of hundreds of GHz.