Abstract
Emerging compositionally engineered complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible platforms have been employed for high efficiencies in various on-chip applications, including optical parametric amplification and wavelength conversion. Combining the novel nonlinear optics platforms such as ultra-silicon-rich nitride (USRN: Si7N3) with periodic waveguide structures can lead to further enhancement of material nonlinearities via the slow light effect and enable ultra-compact devices. Four-wave mixing in a USRN-based, CMOS-compatible, photonic crystal waveguide (PhCWg) leading to on/off optical parametric signal gain reaching 3 dB, and a large instantaneous idler conversion efficiency of −1 dB is explored experimentally. Enhancement of Kerr nonlinearity in the presence of a sizable and near-constant group index allows the findings on an ultra-compact, 97 μm-long PhCWg, equivalent to a large on/off gain per unit length of 333 dB/cm.
Highlights
Nonlinear optics is based on light–matter interactions at power levels sufficiently large to induce a refractive index change for nearinstantaneous modulation of optical signals.1 Prevailing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible photonics platforms, i.e., silicon2 and silicon nitride,3 are centrosymmetric; they rely on Kerr nonlinearities that emerge due to the third-order susceptibility (χ(3)) for demonstrating nonlinear optical phenomena
We previously demonstrated the design and fabrication of the photonic crystal waveguide (PhCWg) on the ultra-silicon-rich nitride (USRN) platform with silica over- and undercladding for better structural robustness and characterized the nonlinear enhancement in our PhCWgs
We show four-wave mixing (FWM) in a degenerate pump configuration using a pulsed pump and present the large on/off idler conversion efficiency and signal gain in USRN PhCWgs, reaching 333 dB/cm
Summary
Nonlinear optics is based on light–matter interactions at power levels sufficiently large to induce a refractive index change for nearinstantaneous modulation of optical signals. Prevailing complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible photonics platforms, i.e., silicon and silicon nitride, are centrosymmetric; they rely on Kerr nonlinearities that emerge due to the third-order susceptibility (χ(3)) for demonstrating nonlinear optical phenomena. An essential third-order parametric process is four-wave mixing (FWM); it occurs due to nonlinear interactions among four optical waves where the energy and momentum are conserved. FWM is the underlying process of many applications including parametric amplification, optical sampling, all-optical wavelength conversion, and demultiplexing and has an indispensable role in optical signal processing. It is used to create entangled photon pairs for quantum communication networks.. It is used to create entangled photon pairs for quantum communication networks.8 Through exploiting both material and structural properties of integrated photonic devices, it is possible to tune the light–matter interactions to a greater extent, allowing the full potential of on-chip nonlinear processes to be efficiently unlocked.. PhCWgs allowed impressive progress in nonlinear optical signal processing applications on the widely used Through exploiting both material and structural properties of integrated photonic devices, it is possible to tune the light–matter interactions to a greater extent, allowing the full potential of on-chip nonlinear processes to be efficiently unlocked. One way to engineer the structural properties of a waveguide is by introducing a twodimensional periodicity on the plane of light propagation, via photonic crystal waveguides. PhCWgs allowed impressive progress in nonlinear optical signal processing applications on the widely used
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