Femtosecond pulse generation using stimulated Raman scattering in integrated silicon optical waveguide device

Abstract

To generate ultrafast femtosecond optical pulses, we propose a model of an integrated device consisting of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) with two symmetric 3 dB directional couplers and a straight waveguide based on the single-mode silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguide. The principle of pulse generation in the presented device is based on the strong stimulated Raman scattering (SRS) in silicon; the center wavelength of the pulse generated is tunable by changing the center wavelength of the co-propagating pump pulse. Numerical results show that, when a continuous wave (CW) with a weak power at 1670 nm wavelength and a pump pulse with a high peak power at 1550 nm wavelength are co-propagating, a narrow femtosecond pulse with a pulse width (full width at half maximum, FWHM) of ∼60 fs (FWHM of the pump pulse is 166.5 fs) can be achieved in the device proposed. In addition, when the waveguide length, pump peak power, and pump-pulse width are fixed, the properties of generated femtosecond pulse depend strongly on the incident chirp of the pump pulse and the CW power.