Abstract
We propose hydrogenated amorphous silicon nanowires as a platform for nonlinear optics in the telecommunication wavelength range. Extraction of the nonlinear parameter of these photonic nanowires reveals a figure of merit larger than 2. It is observed that the nonlinear optical properties of these waveguides degrade with time, but that this degradation can be reversed by annealing the samples. A four wave mixing conversion efficiency of + 12 dB is demonstrated in a 320 Gbit/s serial optical waveform data sampling experiment in a 4 mm long photonic nanowire.
Highlights
The combination of both the high nonlinearity of crystalline silicon, expressed by its high nonlinear index, and the high intensities obtained in silicon photonic nanowires makes the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform an attractive platform for integrated nonlinear optics
We propose hydrogenated amorphous silicon nanowires as a platform for nonlinear optics in the telecommunication wavelength range
Extraction of the nonlinear parameter of these photonic nanowires reveals a figure of merit larger than 2
Summary
The combination of both the high nonlinearity of crystalline silicon, expressed by its high nonlinear index, and the high intensities obtained in silicon photonic nanowires makes the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform an attractive platform for integrated nonlinear optics. The significant nonlinear absorption at telecom wavelengths [5] in crystalline silicon, the two-photon absorption (TPA), has limited the efficiency of these nonlinear devices enormously This has led to several experiments where a pump at wavelengths above the two-photon absorption threshold wavelength of 2.2 um was used [6,7,8]. We demonstrate the use of highly nonlinear hydrogenated amorphous silicon photonic nanowires (a-Si:H) fabricated with CMOS compatible processes for nonlinear signal processing at telecom wavelengths. We demonstrate the use of these photonic nanowires to perform an all-optical signal processing experiment In this experiment a 320 Gbit/s serial optical data stream is successfully waveform sampled with a fourwave mixing (FWM) conversion efficiency of + 12 dB, 19.5 dB better than in previous. The full realization of the potential of a-Si:H waveguides will require that this stability issue be resolved
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