Andrew Allison

Major: Physics
Mentors: Joshua Castro, Professor Galan Moody

Exploring Material Absorption and Optical Nonlinearity of Aluminum-Gallium-Arsenide (AlGaAs) Ring Resonators

Ring resonators are integral to emerging photonic technologies, underpinning sensors that operate at the fundamental limit of precision, allowing for secure communication channels, and facilitating the scalability of quantum computers. AlGaAs, with its high third-order nonlinearity, enables a high rate of entangled photon pair generation. Since this generation rate is proportional to the cube of a ring’s Quality (Q) factor, understanding the constraints on this factor is vital, forming the core objective of this research. By leveraging the different scales on which the Kerr and photothermal effects operate, this study identifies the theoretical, material absorption-limited Q-factor for AlGaAs ring resonators. Our analysis indicates that the theoretical Q-factor limit falls below previously fabricated values, highlighting the need for deeper exploration and optimization of the methods used to calculate the obtained value. Given that AlGaAs ring resonators showcase promising characteristics, understanding their limitations and refining their fabrication processes to achieve optimal Q-factors remains a crucial future directive.