Stimulated supercontinuum generation extends broadening limits in silicon

We demonstrate that stimulated supercontinuum generation alleviates restrictions on spectral broadening in silicon waveguides. At telecommunications wavelengths, two-photon and free-carrier absorption typically deplete the pump before large broadening factors can be achieved. However, broadening via...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied physics letters 2012-03, Vol.100 (10), p.101111-101111-4
Main Authors: DeVore, P. T. S., Solli, D. R., Ropers, C., Koonath, P., Jalali, B.
Format: Article
Language:English
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We demonstrate that stimulated supercontinuum generation alleviates restrictions on spectral broadening in silicon waveguides. At telecommunications wavelengths, two-photon and free-carrier absorption typically deplete the pump before large broadening factors can be achieved. However, broadening via modulation instability (MI) can be enhanced by seeding, which also substantially improves the energy efficiency of spectral broadening in media with nonlinear loss. Coherent seeding also generates a stable output spectrum, in contrast to conventional approaches where broadening starts from noise. The combination of self-phase modulation and stimulated modulation instability generates broadening factors in excess of 40-fold at moderate intensity levels, with >15-times better energy efficiency.
ISSN:0003-6951
1077-3118
DOI:10.1063/1.3692103