Slowing and stopping light using an optomechanical crystal array

One of the major advances needed to realize all-optical information of light is the ability to delay or coherently store and retrieve optical in a rapidly tunable manner. In the classical domain, this optical is expected to be a key ingredient of managing the flow of information complex optical networks. Such a system also has profound implications for information processing, serving as a long-term memory that can store full quantum information contained in an optical pulse. Here, we suggest a approach to light storage involving an optical waveguide coupled to an crystal array, where light in the waveguide can be dynamically coherently transferred into long-lived mechanical vibrations of the array. realistic conditions, this system is capable of achieving large bandwidths storage/delay times in a compact, on-chip platform.