Paper 13349-26
Paper 13349-26
Resonant electro-optic upconversion for next-generation photonic radiometers (Invited Paper)
29 January 2025 • 1:35 PM - 2:00 PM PST | Moscone South, Room 207 (Level 2)
Abstract
Electro-optic upconversion in microresonators has been explored for shifting microwave photons (~10 GHz) into the optical domain for linking qubits for communication in a quantum network. There has also been interest in detecting photons at higher frequencies in the terahertz domain (>0.1 THz) particularly for applications in radio astronomy and earth observation. Here, I present the experimental demonstration of multichannel upconversion of signals that are an octave higher than previously demonstrated. The scheme involves the optical signals being resonant in a whispering gallery mode resonator made of lithium niobate. It shows multichannel detection at a photon number efficiency of 2.5E-6 photons per milliWatt of pump power at 0.16 THz. For higher sensitivity, the device can be implemented with the terahertz field being resonant as well.
Presenter
Mallika I. Suresh
Univ. of Otago (New Zealand)
Mallika Suresh is a research fellow at the University of Otago and in the Dodd-Walls Centre for Photonic and Quantum Technologies. She got her Ph.D. from the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Light in Erlangen, Germany, where she studied nonlinear optical effects due to femtosecond pulses propagating in gas-filled photonic crystal fibers. Since her Ph.D., she has been working on nonlinear optical upconversion in high-quality optical microresonators in the group of A/Prof. Harald Schwefel in Dunedin, New Zealand. In 2023, she was awarded the Agnes-Blackie Research Fellowship to further her career as an independent researcher combining her expertise with femtosecond lasers with an application in fabricating photonic devices like a photonic radiometer based on resonant nonlinear optics for the detection of atmospheric ozone.