Citation:

# Octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum generation in silicon on insulator from 1.06 μm to beyond 2.4 μm

• Light: Science & Applications  7, Article number: 10 (2018)
• Corresponding author:
N Singh, Email: neeteshs@mit.edu
Revised: 31 August 2017
Accepted: 01 September 2017
Published online: 26 January 2018
• Efficient complementary metal-oxide semiconductor-based nonlinear optical devices in the near-infrared are in strong demand. Due to two-photon absorption in silicon, however, much nonlinear research is shifting towards unconventional photonics platforms. In this work, we demonstrate the generation of an octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum in a silicon waveguide covering the spectral region from the near- to shortwave-infrared. With input pulses of 18 pJ in energy, the generated signal spans the wavelength range from the edge of the silicon transmission window, approximately 1.06 to beyond 2.4 μm, with a −20 dB bandwidth covering 1.124–2.4 μm. An octave-spanning supercontinuum was also observed at the energy levels as low as 4 pJ (−35 dB bandwidth). We also measured the coherence over an octave, obtaining $\left| {g_{12}^{\left( 1 \right)}\left( \lambda \right)} \right| > 90\%$, in good agreement with the simulations. In addition, we demonstrate optimization of the third-order dispersion of the waveguide to strengthen the dispersive wave and discuss the advantage of having a soliton at the long wavelength edge of an octave-spanning signal for nonlinear applications. This research paves the way for applications, such as chip-scale precision spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, optical frequency metrology, frequency synthesis and wide-band wavelength division multiplexing in the telecom window.
###### 通讯作者: 陈斌, bchen63@163.com
• 1.

沈阳化工大学材料科学与工程学院 沈阳 110142

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## Octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum generation in silicon on insulator from 1.06 μm to beyond 2.4 μm

• 1. Research Laboratory of Electronics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
• 2. John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Science, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA 02138, USA
• 3. College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering, SUNY Polytechnic Institute, Albany, NY 12203, USA
• 4. Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92039, USA
• 5. Centre for Free Electron Laser Science (CFEL)-DESY and University of Hamburg, Hamburg 22607, Germany
• ###### Corresponding author: Neetesh Singh, neeteshs@mit.edu;

Abstract: Efficient complementary metal-oxide semiconductor-based nonlinear optical devices in the near-infrared are in strong demand. Due to two-photon absorption in silicon, however, much nonlinear research is shifting towards unconventional photonics platforms. In this work, we demonstrate the generation of an octave-spanning coherent supercontinuum in a silicon waveguide covering the spectral region from the near- to shortwave-infrared. With input pulses of 18 pJ in energy, the generated signal spans the wavelength range from the edge of the silicon transmission window, approximately 1.06 to beyond 2.4 μm, with a −20 dB bandwidth covering 1.124–2.4 μm. An octave-spanning supercontinuum was also observed at the energy levels as low as 4 pJ (−35 dB bandwidth). We also measured the coherence over an octave, obtaining $\left| {g_{12}^{\left( 1 \right)}\left( \lambda \right)} \right| > 90\%$, in good agreement with the simulations. In addition, we demonstrate optimization of the third-order dispersion of the waveguide to strengthen the dispersive wave and discuss the advantage of having a soliton at the long wavelength edge of an octave-spanning signal for nonlinear applications. This research paves the way for applications, such as chip-scale precision spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, optical frequency metrology, frequency synthesis and wide-band wavelength division multiplexing in the telecom window.

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