Slowing and stopping light with an optomechanical crystal array

The ability to coherently store and retrieve optical information in a rapidly tunable manner is an important ingredient for all-optical information processing. In the classical domain, this optical buffering is necessary to manage information flow in complex networks. In quantum information processing, such a system can also serve as a long-term memory capable of storing the full quantum information contained in an optical pulse. Here we suggest a novel approach to light storage involving an optical waveguide coupled to an optomechanical crystal array, where light in the waveguide can be dynamically and reversibly mapped into long-lived mechanical vibrations in the array. This technique enables large bandwidths and long storage and delay times in a compact, on-chip platform.