Spectrotemporal shaping of itinerant photons via distributed nanomechanics

Efficient phase manipulation of light is the cornerstone of many advanced photonic applications(1-4). However, the pursuit of compact, broadband and deep phase control of light has been hindered by the finite nonlinearity of the optical materials available for integrated photonics(5,6). Here, we propose a dynamically driven photonic structure for deep phase manipulation and coherent spectrotemporal control of light based on distributed nanomechanics. We experimentally demonstrate the quasi-phase-matched interaction between stationary mechanical vibration and itinerant optical fields, which is used to generate an on-chip modulated frequency comb over 1.15 THz (160 lines), corresponding to a phase modulation depth of over 21.6 pi. In addition, an optical time-lens effect induced by mechanical vibration is realized, leading to optical pulse compression of over 70-fold to obtain a minimum pulse duration of 1.02 ps. The high efficiency and versatility make such mechanically driven dynamic photonic structures ideal for realizing complex optical control schemes, such as lossless non-reciprocity7, frequency division optical communication-1 and optical frequency comb division(8).