Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Singh, Neetesh
• Xin, Ming
• Vermeulen, Diedrik
• Shtyrkova, Katia
• Li, Nanxi
• Callahan, Patrick T
• Magden, Emir Salih
• Ruocco, Alfonso
• Fahrenkopf, Nicholas
• Baiocco, Christopher
• Kuo, Bill P-P
• Radic, Stojan
• Ippen, Erich
• Kärtner, Franz X
• Watts, Michael R

Titel

Octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum generation in silicon on insulator from 1.06 μm to beyond 2.4 μm

Ist Teil von

• Light, science & applications, 2018, Vol.7 (1), p.17131-17131

Ort / Verlag

London: Nature Publishing Group UK

Erscheinungsjahr

2018

Quelle

Alma/SFX Local Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Efficient complementary metal-oxide semiconductor-based nonlinear optical devices in the near-infrared are in strong demand. Due to two-photon absorption in silicon, however, much nonlinear research is shifting towards unconventional photonics platforms. In this work, we demonstrate the generation of an octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum in a silicon waveguide covering the spectral region from the near- to shortwave-infrared. With input pulses of 18 pJ in energy, the generated signal spans the wavelength range from the edge of the silicon transmission window, approximately 1.06 to beyond 2.4 μm, with a −20 dB bandwidth covering 1.124–2.4 μm. An octave-spanning supercontinuum was also observed at the energy levels as low as 4 pJ (−35 dB bandwidth). We also measured the coherence over an octave, obtaining , in good agreement with the simulations. In addition, we demonstrate optimization of the third-order dispersion of the waveguide to strengthen the dispersive wave and discuss the advantage of having a soliton at the long wavelength edge of an octave-spanning signal for nonlinear applications. This research paves the way for applications, such as chip-scale precision spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, optical frequency metrology, frequency synthesis and wide-band wavelength division multiplexing in the telecom window. Supercontinuum generation: silicon source spans an octave A silicon-based source that generates a wide spectrum of light, spanning the near-infrared transparency window of silicon, has been made. Supercontinuum generation involves using short, high-power pulses to generate broad continuous spectra by propagating them through nonlinear media. Supercontinuum sources are needed for applications in spectroscopy and optical coherence tomography. Silicon is an attractive medium since it is compatible with standard semiconductor fabrication processes but it suffers from losses due to nonlinear processes such as two-photon absorption. Now, Neetesh Singh of Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the USA and co-workers have realized a fully coherent supercontinuum generation in a silicon waveguide over a full octave that spans the near to shortwave infrared window. The researchers envision their source being used in applications such as chip-scale precision spectroscopy, optical frequency metrology and optical communications.