Generation of parabolic pulse in a dispersion and nonlinearity jointly engineered silicon waveguide taper

Abstract

In this paper, we numerically investigate the generation of parabolic pulse (PP) in a silicon waveguide taper with simultaneous variations of the group-velocity dispersion and nonlinearity along the propagation direction. The design of such a waveguide taper is based on the condition of self-similar propagation of the PP. When Gaussian, hyperbolic secant, and super-Gaussian pulses are propagated inside the waveguide taper designed, the evolution processes under the ideal condition are analyzed. Then the PP generation from Gaussian input is shown when higher-order dispersion, higher-order nonlinearity, linear loss, two-photon absorption, free-carrier absorption, and free-carrier dispersion are taken into account. Moreover, the influences of the initial chirp, pulse width, peak power, and waveguide length on the PP generation are further discussed. It is demonstrated that high-quality PP can be obtained with a mismatch parameter as low as 1.3×10−3, in the designed silicon waveguide taper.