Nanomechanical Phase Shifting on a Gallium Arsenide Platform

Integrated photonics on membranes containing quantum dots constitute a promising platform for quantum information processing. On-chip photonic information processing requires reconfigurable active elements such as phase shifters and beamsplitters. We report the design, fabrication and characterization of a slot waveguide phase shifter manufactured on a suspended gallium arsenide (GaAs) membrane with embedded indium arsenide (InAs) quantum dots (QDs). Using a comb drive we electromechanically actuate the gap of a slot waveguide, demonstrating a phase shift of \(\pi \) in a device with a slot waveguide length of \(10\,\upmu \text {m}\) .