Nonlinear optical response of photonic bandgap structures containing PbSe quantum dots

New nanocomposite materials with large optical nonlinearity are important for the development and miniaturizing of active components and integrated circuits for all-optical signal processing and computing. To enable on-chip integration with silicon microelectronics nonlinear signal processing components compatible with silicon nanophotonics need to be developed. In this paper, we study the nonlinear optical response of silicon-based photonic bandgap (PBG) structures filled with PbSe quantum dot (QD) materials and experimentally demonstrate the feasibility of a new class of nonlinear nanophotonic devices for all-optical signal processing based on such microstructures. Active tuning is demonstrated for both out-of-plane components, with one-dimensional porous silicon PBG microcavities and in-plane components, using one-dimensional PBG waveguide-based microresonators.