Forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in silicon microring resonators

Abstract

Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) has been demonstrated in silicon waveguides in recent years. However, due to the weak interaction between photons and acoustic phonons in these waveguides, long interaction lengths are typically necessary. Here, we experimentally show that forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in a short interaction length of a silicon microring resonator with a radius of 20 μm could give a peak gain of 0.5 dB at a coupled pump power of 26.1 mW. The experimental results demonstrate that both optical and acoustic modes can have efficient interactions in a short optical resonator. This work shows the potential of SBS in silicon for translating the demonstrated fiber SBS applications to the integrated silicon photonics platform.