Reconfigurable optical filters are of great importance for applications in optical communicationand information processing. of particular interest are tuning techniques that take advantage ofmechanical deformation of the devices, as they offer wider tuning range. Here we demonstratereconfiguration of coupled photonic crystal nanobeam cavities by using optical gradient forceinduced mechanical actuation. Propagating waveguide modes that exist over a wide wavelengthrange are used to actuate the structures and control the resonance of localized cavity modes.using this all-optical approach, more than 18 linewidths of tuning range is demonstrated.using an on-chip temperature self-referencing method, we determine that 20% of the totaltuning was due to optomechanical reconfiguration and the rest due to thermo-optic effects.By operating the device at frequencies higher than the thermal cutoff, we show high-speedoperation dominated by just optomechanical effects. Independent control of mechanical andoptical resonances of our structures is also demonstrated.
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