Ultra-fast modulator for modulating the amplitude of laser radiation

Abstract

A device for modulating the amplitude of an incident laser radiation of wavelength λi is provided. The device includes a metal bottom layer above which there is a semiconductive layer contains a stack of a plurality of quantum wells above which there is a structured metal top layer, the two metal layers being reflective to the incident laser radiation, the structuring of the top layer and the distance between said two metal layers being small enough for the device to form an optical microcavity having at least one resonance mode; at least a part of the quantum wells, called active wells, having an intersubband absorption at a central wavelength λISB=hc/EISB, the coupling between said intersubband transition at said central wavelength λISB and one of the modes of the microcavity driving the excitation of cavity polaritons and a Rabi splitting at the energies EISB±ℏΩRabi with ΩRabi the Rabi frequency; said device including an electric circuit configured to apply two distinct voltage differences, V0 and V1, between the two metal layers, the device absorbing the incident radiation for the voltage difference V0 and the device reflecting or transmitting the incident radiation for the voltage difference V1.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.