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In this paper, we report on the observation of nonlinear effects in a nanostrip phononic metasurface (NPM) that enable the tuning of resonance frequencies at 1.42 GHz. The NPM resonator made of periodic nanostrip array is fabricated on a lithium niobate substrate. Each of the nanostrip is 250-nm wide and is made of 680-nm-thick SiO2 layer stacking on 50-nm Al metal electrodes. Finite element analysis reveals that the device operates in a vertically polarized (compression) mode with substantial acoustic energy confined in the nanostrips, leading to a local resonance at low acoustic velocity. Due to the nonlinearity, the resonance frequency of the device decreases quadratically with the increase of stimulation power from 10 to 30 dBm. The underlying mechanism of the nonlinearity is found to be the power-dependent coupling of the adjacent nanostrips. This coupling induces softening of the substrate surface region, which reduces the acoustic velocity and hence the bulk radiation. As a result, the quality factor of the NPM resonator is found to improve with the increase of stimulation power. The power-dependent coupling of nanostrips in the NPM resonator demonstrates a reliable method for the realization of nonlinearity in phononic metasurfaces, which would significantly enrich the mechanisms for the manipulation of surface acoustic waves at high frequencies.

A scheme is demonstrated for optical pumping of a vertical-external-cavity surface-emitting laser. The scheme is based on absorption of the pump light within the wells of the multiple-quantum-well gain structure rather than the conventional approach of absorption of a shorter wavelength in the barrier regions. The operation of a laser around 850 nm pumped by an 808 nm source demonstrates the potential of this technique for allowing operation at a significantly shorter range of wavelengths for these devices in general and specific application of high-brightness pump lasers for devices in this spectral region. A further advantage is the smaller quantum defect which results in reduced heating of the gain medium. These advantages are achieved while maintaining a slope efficiency of up to 18%, which is comparable to results obtained with a traditional pumping scheme with a similar gain medium.

International audience; We report on the direct observation of trapping and guiding of surface-guided elastic waves in a linear defect introduced into a micron-scale phononic crystal. Elastic field amplitude detection using laser scanning interferometry was used to characterize the different transmission regimes of the one-period wide line defect in a phononic crystal structure as a function of frequency and to discriminate phononic waveguiding from transmission outside the band gap. Surface density-of-states computations support the experimental observations.

International audience; We report on an active two-dimensional lithium niobate photonic crystal (PhC) driven by stationary Rayleigh surface acoustic waves. The configuration relies on two interdigital transducers that modulate the refractive index through the acousto-optical effect. Highly efficient, compact acousto-optical PhCs with an active length of only 13 μm and a driving electrical power of 20 mW have been fabricated and characterized. Experiments show that an enhancement factor of the elasto-optical interaction of the order of 61 is obtained thanks to slow light effects in the PhC.

International audience; We propose and demonstrate experimentally the concept of the annular interdigital transducer that focuses acoustic waves on the surface of a piezoelectric material to a single, diffraction-limited, spot. The shape of the transducing fingers follows the wave surface. Experiments conducted on lithium niobate substrates evidence that the generated surface waves converge to the center of the transducer, producing a spot that shows a large concentration of acoustic energy. This concept is of practical significance to design new intense microacoustic sources, for instance for enhanced acouto-optical interactions.