Optical pulse shaper with integrated slab waveguide for arbitrary waveform generation using optical gradient force

Abstract

Integrated optical pulse shaper opens up possibilities for realizing the ultra high-speed and ultra wide-band linear signal processing with compact size and low power consumption. We propose a silicon monolithic integrated optical pulse shaper using optical gradient force, which is based on the eight-path finite impulse response. A cantilever structure is fabricated in one arm of the Mach—Zehnder interferometer (MZI) to act as an amplitude modulator. The phase shift feature of waveguide is analyzed with the optical pump power, and five typical waveforms are demonstrated with the manipulation of optical force. Unlike other pulse shaper schemes based on thermo—optic effect or electro—optic effect, our scheme is based on a new degree of freedom manipulation, i.e., optical force, so no microelectrodes are required on the silicon chip, which can reduce the complexity of fabrication. Besides, the chip structure is suitable for commercial silicon on an insulator (SOI) wafer, which has a top silicon layer of about 220 nm in thickness.