Parametric sideband generation in CMOS-compatible oscillators from visible to telecom wavelengths

Abstract

We present an approach for generating widely separated first sidebands based solely on the four-wave-mixing process in optical parametric oscillators built on complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor-compatible photonic chips. Using higher-order transverse modes to perform dispersion engineering, we obtain zero-group-velocity dispersion near 796 nm. By pumping the chip in the normal dispersion region, at 795.6 nm, we generate a signal field in the visible band (at 546.2 nm) and the corresponding idler field in the telecom band (at 1465.3 nm), corresponding to a frequency span of approximately 346 THz. We show that the spectral position of signal and idler can be tailored by exploiting a delicate balance between second- and fourth-order dispersion terms. Furthermore, we explicitly demonstrate a change in the parametric oscillation dynamics when moving the pump field from the anomalous to normal dispersion, where the chip ceases producing multiple sidebands adjacent to the pump field and generates widely separated single sidebands. This provides a chip-scale platform for generating single-sideband fields separated by more than one octave, covering the visible and telecom spectral regions.