Frequency-tunable quantum microwave to optical conversion system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10824048-B2
Application number	US-201916373605-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Apr 2, 2019
Priority date	Apr 2, 2019
Publication date	Nov 3, 2020
Grant date	Nov 3, 2020

Abstract

A electronic method, includes receiving, by a graphene structure, a microwave signal. The microwave signal has a driving voltage level. The electronic method includes generating, by the graphene structure, optical photons based on the microvolts. The electronic method includes outputting, by the graphene structure, the optical photons.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An electronic method for converting from a microwave to an optical domain, comprising:
receiving, by a graphene structure, microvolts, wherein the microvolts are sent to the graphene structure via a microwave signal, and the microwave signal is received by the graphene structure at a quantum level,
and wherein the graphene structure is receiving the microvolts at a particular cryogenic temperature,
generating, by the graphene structure, optical photons based on receiving the microvolts; and
outputting, by the graphene structure, the optical photons at the quantum level, wherein:
the graphene structure is a quantum modulator which generates the optical photons based on the received microvolts, and
the generating the optical photons is based on a microwave frequency of different electron densities.

2. The electronic method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene structure has multiple graphene layers, wherein:
the multiple graphene layers have a distance, d, from each other,
the multiple graphene layers are connected with each other in an interdigital configuration and operate electronically as a capacitor and, at the same time, operate optically as a periodic medium, and wherein each of the graphene layers has an area of 1 mm 2 .

3. The electronic method of claim 1 , where the graphene structure has multiple graphene layers, wherein each of the multiple graphene layers has a length L, wherein the length is less than 2.0 millimeters.

4. The electronic method of claim 1 , wherein the driving voltage is less than 10 microvolts and the particular cryogenic temperature is in milli-Kelvins.

5. The electronic method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene structure is pumped by an optical pump, wherein:
the optical pump has an intensity level that is below a damage threshold level of the graphene structure, and
the optical pump has an amplitude, |A 1 | of



A
1



=

π
⁢

⁢

v
g

2
⁢
L
⁢


g


,

wherein, v g is a group velocity, L is a length of the graphene structure, and |g| is a conversion rate associated with converting microvolts to optical photons at the quantum state.

6. The electronic method of claim 1 , further comprising:
generating, by the graphene structure, a lower sideband, wherein the lower sideband is generated based on the microwave signal modulating the graphene structure's effective permittivity; suppressing, by the graphene structure, the lower sideband generated when the graphene structure is pumped by an optical pump,
wherein the lower sideband is suppressed to a destruction resonance value associated with the graphene structure and wherein no reflected waves are generated at the lower sideband;
generating, by the graphene structure, an upper sideband at the same time that the lower sideband is generated,
wherein a quantum state of the upper sideband only depends on a microwave signal, wherein the microvolts is sent to the graphene structure via the microwave signal.

7. The electronic method of claim 1 , wherein the graphene structure has multiple graphene layers that are connected to each other in an interdigital configuration.

8. The electronic method of claim 1 , wherein a conversion rate, associated with generating the optical photons from the microvolts is based on a length of the graphene structure and the optical pump amplitude.

Assignees

• Abu Dhabi Univ

Inventors

• Qasymeh Montasir Yousof Abdallah
• El Euch Hichem

Classifications

• G02F1/355 Primary

  characterised by the materials used · CPC title

• G02F1/353 Primary

  Frequency conversion, i.e. wherein a light beam is generated with frequency components different from those of the incident light beams · CPC title