Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and Wideband Wavelength Conversion in Silicon Nitride Microdisk Optomechanical Resonators

Abstract

We demonstrate optomechanically mediated electromagnetically induced transparency and wavelength conversion in silicon nitride (Si_3N_4) microdisk resonators. Fabricated devices support whispering gallery optical modes with a quality factor (Q) of 10^6, and radial breathing mechanical modes with a Q = 10^4 and a resonance frequency of 625 MHz, so that the system is in the resolved sideband regime. Placing a strong optical control field on the red (blue) detuned sideband of the optical mode produces coherent interference with a resonant probe beam, inducing a transparency (absorption) window for the probe. This is observed for multiple optical modes of the device, all of which couple to the same mechanical mode, and which can be widely separated in wavelength due to the large band gap of Si_3N_4. These properties are exploited to demonstrate frequency up-conversion and down-conversion of optical signals between the 1300 and 980 nm bands with a frequency span of 69.4 THz.