Self-sustained gigahertz electronic oscillations in ultrahigh-Q photonic microresonators

Abstract

We report on theoretical and experimental observations of self-sustained fast [gigahertz (GHz)] electronic oscillations resulting from coupled electron-photon dynamics in ultrahigh-Q Si microdisk resonators with cw pumping. Our theoretical analysis identifies conditions for generating steady-state GHz oscillations while suppressing thermal oscillations [megahertz (MHz)] with submilliwatt input laser power. Such fast oscillations are tunable via changing the free-carrier (FC) lifetime of the resonator. Integrating a p-i-n diode with these high-Q resonators for controlling the FC lifetime promises the realization of an integrated voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) in a silicon photonics chip. © 2012 American Physical Society.