Ultra-compact dual-purpose photonic crystal slab waveguide for both generating and isolating optical frequency comb

Abstract

In this article, we present a novel approach to achieve a highly compact Si3N4 photonic crystal waveguide by incorporating air holes. This structure is developed in two functional applications that simultaneously perform the functions of generating optical frequency combs and demultiplexing them. The presence of air holes enhances control and precision in the dispersion engineering process. At the same time, the light conduction, based on the refractive index contrast between the core and cladding, along with the conduction occurring in the photonic bandgap region of the structure, leads to enhanced trapping of light within the core of the structure. As a result, a nonlinear coefficient of 4.2 m-1W−1 is obtained, which originates from the small effective mode area of 0.67 µm2. By employing four-wave mixing, a total of 40 comb lines are generated with a frequency spacing range of 10 GHz, 50 GHz, 60 GHz, and 100 GHz over a 6 mm length waveguide. The same waveguide structure is also developed for demultiplexing the comb lines, with four filters at the end which, individually extract the optical combs possessing wavelengths of 1317.8 nm, 1318.5 nm, 1319.2 nm, and 1319.9 nm. This demultiplexer has a Q-factor, average transmission efficiency, channel spacing, and spectral linewidth of 7209.35, 99.2 %, 0.7 nm, and 0.185 nm, respectively. The suggested design can significantly advance integrated photonic circuits, optical communications, and remote sensing applications requiring simultaneous information delivery, such as remote surgical operations and sensing, because of its substantial compactness.