Photo-induced writing and erasing of gratings in As2S3 chalcogenide microresonators

Reconfigurable optical devices provide new opportunities for integrated photonics. The use of chalcogenide glasses, with large refractive index nonlinearity and photosensitivity, in conjunction with the microresonator platform has proven to be a powerful tool in the study and application of nanophotonics. Here, we report cavity-enhanced photo induced writing and erasing of gratings in a chalcogenide As2S3 microresonator. Grating writing is implemented with self-enhanced standing wave modes, while the erasing of written gratings as well as removing of intrinsic back-scattering is achieved by Kerr-nonlinearity-induced symmetry breaking in the microresonator. These findings pave the way for future reconfigurable photonic devices and reveal exciting new possibilities for nonlinear photonics and microresonators. (c) 2020 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement