Nonlinearities in silicon photonics: something to exploit or to counteract?

Andrea Melloni; Francesco Morichetti; Carlo Ferrari; Antonio Canciamilla; Marc Sorel

doi:10.1117/12.904995

6 February 2012 Nonlinearities in silicon photonics: something to exploit or to counteract?

Andrea Melloni, Francesco Morichetti, Carlo Ferrari, Antonio Canciamilla, Marc Sorel

Proceedings Volume 8236, Laser Resonators, Microresonators, and Beam Control XIV; 82361Q (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.904995
Event: SPIE LASE, 2012, San Francisco, California, United States

Abstract

In the 1550-nm wavelength range, silicon waveguides exhibit a plethora of non-linear phenomena arising when the optical power is sufficiently intense. Inside optical resonators the efficiency of wave mixing effects is largely enhanced and can be effectively exploited for on-chip all-optical signal processing. By cascading silicon microring resonators, we demonstrated the concept of travelling-wave resonant four-wave mixing (FWM) and we realized a 630-μm-long wavelength converter with a conversion gain 28-dB higher than a bare waveguide of the same physical length. Both the conversion efficiency and the bandwidth of the device are enhanced with respect to a single silicon resonator. However, one of the major impairments associated with nonlinearity in silicon is the TPA-induced local heating of the waveguides. In coupled resonator architectures, this produces not simply a rigid red-shift of the spectral response, but a resonance spread disrupting the frequency response of the devices. Active thermal control of the individual resonators is proposed as a viable strategy to adaptively compensate for intensity-dependent distortions and cross-talk increase in silicon coupled resonator filters, demonstrating that device performance can be preserved regardless of the aggregate power transmitted through the waveguide.

Citation Download Citation

Andrea Melloni, Francesco Morichetti, Carlo Ferrari, Antonio Canciamilla, and Marc Sorel "Nonlinearities in silicon photonics: something to exploit or to counteract?", Proc. SPIE 8236, Laser Resonators, Microresonators, and Beam Control XIV, 82361Q (6 February 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.904995

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