All-optical Switching of a Microcavity Repeated at Terahertz Rates

Abstract: We have performed ultrafast pump-probe experiments on a GaAs-AlAs microcavity with a resonance near 1300 nm in the "original" telecom band. We exploit the virtually instantaneous electronic Kerr effect to repeatedly and reproducibly switch a GaAs-AlAs planar microcavity. We achieve repetition times as fast as 300 fs, thereby breaking the THz modulation barrier. The rate of the switching in our experiments is only determined by optics and not by material related relaxation. Our results offer novel opportunities for fundamental studies of cavity-QED and optical information processing in sub-picosecond time scale.