Generation of Ultrafast Bright and Dark Pulse on Silicon Chip with Integrated Mach-Zehnder Interferometer Configuration

Abstract

In this paper we propose and simulate ultrafast femtosecond bright and dark pulses, obtained simultaneously at the same center wavelength, based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides in Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) configuration; the ultrafast pulsed pump is injected into one MZI's arm and a continuous wave component (CW) is divided equally into the two MZI arms. Numerical results show that properties of the generated bright and dark pulses are strongly dependent on the launching optical powers of both the pump pulse and CW carriers, and on the waveguide length.