Supercontinuum in integrated photonics: generation, applications, challenges, and perspectives.

Frequency conversion in nonlinear materials is an extremely useful solution to the generation of new optical frequencies. Often, it is the only viable solution to realize light sources highly relevant for applications in science and industry. In particular, supercontinuum generation in waveguides, defined as the extreme spectral broadening of an input pulsed laser light, is a powerful technique to bridge distant spectral regions based on single-pass geometry, without requiring additional seed lasers or temporal synchronization. Owing to the influence of dispersion on the nonlinear broadening physics, supercontinuum generation had its breakthrough with the advent of photonic crystal fibers, which permitted an advanced control of light confinement, thereby greatly improving our understanding of the underlying phenomena responsible for supercontinuum generation. More recently, maturing in fabrication of photonic integrated waveguides has resulted in access to supercontinuum generation platforms benefiting from precise lithographic control of dispersion, high yield, compact footprint, and improved power consumption. This Review aims to present a comprehensive overview of supercontinuum generation in chip-based platforms, from underlying physics mechanisms up to the most recent and significant demonstrations. The diversity of integrated material platforms, as well as specific features of waveguides, is opening new opportunities, as will be discussed here.

Pulsed Four-Wave Mixing at Telecom Wavelengths in Si3N4 Waveguides Locally Covered by Graphene.

Recently, the nonlinear optical response of graphene has been widely investigated, as has the integration of this 2D material onto dielectric waveguides so as to enhance the various nonlinear phenomena that underpin all-optical signal processing applications at telecom wavelengths. However, a great disparity continues to exist from these experimental reports, depending on the used conditions or the hybrid devices under test. Most importantly, hybrid graphene-based waveguides were tested under relatively low powers, and/or combined with waveguide materials that already exhibited a nonnegligible nonlinear contribution, thereby limiting the practical use of graphene for nonlinear applications. Here, we experimentally investigate the nonlinear response of Si3N4 waveguides that are locally covered by submillimeter-long graphene patches by means of pulsed degenerate four-wave mixing at telecom wavelength under 7 W peak powers. Our measurements and comparison with simulations allow us to estimate a local change of the nonlinearity sign as well as a moderate increase of the nonlinear waveguide parameter (γ∼-10 m-1W-1) provided by graphene. Our analysis also clarifies the tradeoff associated with the loss penalty and nonlinear benefit afforded by graphene patches integrated onto passive photonic circuits, thereby providing some guidelines for the design of hybrid integrated nonlinear devices, coated with graphene, or, more generally, any other 2D material.

Photo-Thermal Tuning of Graphene Oxide Coated Integrated Optical Waveguides.

We experimentally investigate power-sensitive photo-thermal tuning (PTT) of two-dimensional (2D) graphene oxide (GO) films coated on integrated optical waveguides. We measure the light power thresholds for reversible and permanent GO reduction in silicon nitride (SiN) waveguides integrated with one and two layers of GO. For the device with one layer of GO, the power threshold for reversible and permanent GO reduction are ~20 and ~22 dBm, respectively. For the device with two layers of GO, the corresponding results are ~13 and ~18 dBm, respectively. Raman spectra at different positions of a hybrid waveguide with permanently reduced GO are characterized, verifying the inhomogeneous GO reduction along the direction of light propagation through the waveguide. The differences between the PTT induced by a continuous-wave laser and a pulsed laser are also compared, confirming that the PTT mainly depend on the average input power. These results reveal interesting features for 2D GO films coated on integrated optical waveguides, which are of fundamental importance for the control and engineering of GO's properties in hybrid integrated photonic devices.

Low-voltage, broadband graphene-coated Bragg mirror electro-optic modulator at telecom wavelengths.

We demonstrate a graphene based electro-optic free-space modulator yielding a reflectance contrast of 20% over a strikingly large 250nm wavelength range, centered in the near-infrared telecom band. Our device is based on the original association of a planar Bragg reflector, topped with an electrically contacted double-layer graphene capacitor structure employing a high work-function oxide shown to confer a static doping to the graphene in the absence of an external bias, thereby reducing the switching voltage range to +/-1V. The device design, fabrication and opto-electric characterization is presented, and its behavior modeled using a coupled optical-electronic framework.

Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in silicon-germanium all-normal dispersion waveguides.

We demonstrate coherent supercontinuum generation spanning over an octave from a silicon germanium-on-silicon waveguide using ∼200fs pulses at a wavelength of 4 µm. The waveguide is engineered to provide low all-normal dispersion in the TM polarization. We validate the coherence of the generated supercontinuum via simulations, with a high degree of coherence across the entire spectrum. Such a generated supercontinuum could lend itself to pulse compression down to 22 fs.

Ultralow-loss tightly confining Si3N4 waveguides and high-Q microresonators.

Efficient nonlinear phenomena in integrated waveguides imply the realization in a nonlinear material of tightly confining waveguides sustaining guided modes with a small effective area with ultra-low propagation losses as well as high-power damage thresholds. However, when the waveguide cross-sectional dimensions keep shrinking, propagation losses and the probability of failure events tend to increase dramatically. In this work, we report both the fabrication and testing of high-confinement, ultralow-loss silicon nitride waveguides and resonators showing average attenuation coefficients as low as ∼3 dB/m across the S-, C-, and L bands for 1.6-µm-width × 800-nm-height dimensions, with intrinsic quality factors approaching ∼107 in the C band. The present technology results in very high cross-wafer device performance uniformities, low thermal susceptibility, and high power damage thresholds. In particular, we developed here an optimized fully subtractive process introducing a novel chemical-physical multistep annealing and encapsulation fabrication method, resulting in high quality Si3N4-based photonic integrated circuits for energy-efficient nonlinear photonics and quantum optics.

Integrated optical auto-correlator based on third-harmonic generation in a silicon photonic crystal waveguide.

The ability to use coherent light for material science and applications is linked to our ability to measure short optical pulses. While free-space optical methods are well established, achieving this on a chip would offer the greatest benefit in footprint, performance and cost, and allow the integration with complementary signal-processing devices. A key goal is to achieve operation at sub-watt peak power levels and on sub-picosecond timescales. Previous integrated demonstrations require either a temporally synchronized reference pulse, an off-chip spectrometer or long tunable delay lines. Here we report a device capable of achieving single-shot time-domain measurements of near-infrared picosecond pulses based on an ultra-compact integrated CMOS-compatible device, which could operate without any external instrumentation. It relies on optical third-harmonic generation in a slow-light silicon waveguide. Our method can also serve as an in situ diagnostic tool to map, at visible wavelengths, the propagation dynamics of near-infrared pulses in photonic crystals.

Slow-light enhanced correlated photon pair generation in a silicon photonic crystal waveguide.

We report the generation of correlated photon pairs in the telecom C-band at room temperature from a dispersion-engineered silicon photonic crystal waveguide. The spontaneous four-wave mixing process producing the photon pairs is enhanced by slow-light propagation enabling an active device length of less than 100 µm. With a coincidence to accidental ratio of 12.8 at a pair generation rate of 0.006 per pulse, this ultracompact photon pair source paves the way toward scalable quantum information processing realized on-chip.

Third-harmonic generation in slow-light chalcogenide glass photonic crystal waveguides.

We demonstrate third-harmonic generation (THG) in a dispersion-engineered slow-light photonic crystal waveguide fabricated in AMTIR-1 chalcogenide glass. Owing to the relatively low loss and low dispersion in the slow-light (c/30) regime, combined with the high nonlinear figure of merit of the material (∼2), we obtain a relatively large conversion efficiency (1.4×10(-8)/W(2)), which is 30× higher than in comparable silicon waveguides, and observe a uniform visible light pattern along the waveguide. These results widen the number of applications underpinned by THG in slow-light platforms, such as the direct observation of the spatial evolution of the propagating mode.

Measuring the dispersive properties of liquids using a microinterferometer.

Using a single-beam, compact interferometer, we measure the refractive index of liquids in the near IR. This highly compact device relies on a silica capillary with a 50 µm inner diameter: it uses a minimal volume of test liquid, isolates the liquid from the humid atmosphere, has broadband operation, and is inherently mechanically stable. These characteristics, in combination with straightforward data acquisition, make it particularly well-suited for measuring the optical properties in the near IR of a wide range of liquids. Using this refractometer, we measure the refractive index of high-index liquids that are expected to be hydroscopic. The accuracy of the refractometer (±0.1%) is demonstrated through measuring the indices of air and pure water. We show that the hydroscopic behavior of the probed liquids has little influence on their optical properties in the near IR.

Ultracompact 160 Gbaud all-optical demultiplexing exploiting slow light in an engineered silicon photonic crystal waveguide.

We demonstrate all-optical demultiplexing of a high-bandwidth, time-division multiplexed 160 Gbit/s signal to 10 Gbit/s channels, exploiting slow light enhanced four-wave mixing in a dispersion engineered, 96 µm long planar photonic crystal waveguide. We report error-free (bit error rate<10⁻9) operation of all 16 demultiplexed channels, with a power penalty of 2.2-2.4 dB, highlighting the potential of these structures as a platform for ultracompact all-optical nonlinear processes.

Photosensitive and thermal nonlinear effects in chalcogenide photonic crystal cavities.

We investigate the photosensitive and thermo-optic nonlinear properties of chalcogenide glass photonic crystal (PhC) cavities at telecommunications wavelengths. We observe a photosensitive refractive index change in AMTIR-1 (Ge(33)As(12)Se(55)) material in the near-infrared, which is enhanced by light localization in the PhC cavity and manifests in a permanent blue-shift of the nanocavity resonance. Thermo-optic non-linear properties are thoroughly investigated by i) carrying out thermal bistable switching experiments, from which we determined thermal switching times of 63 µs and 93 µs for switch on and switch off respectively and ii) by studying heating of the cavity with a high peak power pulsed laser input, which shows that two-photon absorption is the dominant heating mechanism. Our measurements and analysis highlight the detrimental impact of near-infrared photosensitivity and two-photon absorption on cavity based nonlinear optical switching schemes. We conclude that glass compositions with lower two-photon absorption and more stable properties (reduced photosensitivity) are therefore required for nonlinear applications in chalcogenide photonic crystal cavities.

Silicon nanowire based radio-frequency spectrum analyzer.

We demonstrate a terahertz bandwidth silicon nanowire based radio-frequency spectrum analyzer using cross-phase modulation. We show that the device provides accurate characterization of 640Gbaud on-off-keyed data stream and demonstrate its potential for optical time-division multiplexing optimization and optical performance monitoring of ultrahigh speed signals on a silicon chip. We analyze the impact of free carrier effects on our device, and find that the efficiency of the device is not reduced by two-photon or free-carrier absorption, nor its accuracy compromised by free-carrier cross-chirp.

Investigation of phase matching for third-harmonic generation in silicon slow light photonic crystal waveguides using Fourier optics.

Using Fourier optics, we retrieve the wavevector dependence of the third-harmonic (green) light generated in a slow light silicon photonic crystal waveguide. We show that quasi-phase matching between the third-harmonic signal and the fundamental mode is provided in this geometry by coupling to the continuum of radiation modes above the light line. This process sustains third-harmonic generation with a relatively high efficiency and a substantial bandwidth limited only by the slow light window of the fundamental mode. The results give us insights into the physics of this nonlinear process in the presence of strong absorption and dispersion at visible wavelengths where bandstructure calculations are problematic. Since the characteristics (e.g. angular pattern) of the third-harmonic light primarily depend on the fundamental mode dispersion, they could be readily engineered.

Nonlinear loss dynamics in a silicon slow-light photonic crystal waveguide.

We directly investigate both experimentally and numerically the influence of optical nonlinear loss dynamics on a silicon waveguide based all-optical device. The dynamics of these nonlinear losses are explored through the analysis of optical limiting of an amplitude distorted 10 Gbit/s signal in a slow-light silicon photonic crystal waveguide. As the frequency of the distortion approaches the free-carrier recombination rate, free-carrier absorption reaches a steady state, leaving two-photon absorption the dominant dynamic nonlinear loss. Our results highlight the importance of engineering the free-carrier lifetime in silicon waveguides for high speed all-optical processing applications.

Slow light enhancement of nonlinear effects in silicon engineered photonic crystal waveguides.

We report nonlinear measurements on 80microm silicon photonic crystal waveguides that are designed to support dispersionless slow light with group velocities between c/20 and c/50. By launching picoseconds pulses into the waveguides and comparing their output spectral signatures, we show how self phase modulation induced spectral broadening is enhanced due to slow light. Comparison of the measurements and numerical simulations of the pulse propagation elucidates the contribution of the various effects that determine the output pulse shape and the waveguide transfer function. In particular, both experimental and simulated results highlight the significant role of two photon absorption and free carriers in the silicon waveguides and their reinforcement in the slow light regime.

Reconfigurable microfluidic photonic crystal slab cavities.

We demonstrate the spectral and spatial reconfigurability of photonic crystal double-heterostructure cavities in silicon by microfluidic infiltration of selected air holes. The lengths of the microfluidic cavities are changed by adjusting the region of infiltrated holes in steps of several microns. We systematically investigate the spectral signature of these cavities, showing high Q-factor resonances for a broad range of cavity lengths. The fluid can be removed by immersing the device in toluene, offering complete reconfigurability. Our cavity writing technique allows for tolerances in the infiltration process and provides flexibility as it can be employed at any time after photonic crystal fabrication.

High-Q microfluidic cavities in silicon-based two-dimensional photonic crystal structures.

We demonstrate postprocessed microfluidic double-heterostructure cavities in silicon-based photonic crystal slab waveguides. The cavity structure is realized by selective fluid infiltration of air holes using a glass microtip, resulting in a local change of the average refractive index of the photonic crystal. The microcavities are probed by evanescent coupling from a silica nanowire. An intrinsic quality factor of 57,000 has been derived from our measurements, representing what we believe to be the largest value observed in microfluidic photonic crystal cavities to date.

Characterizing photonic crystal waveguides with an expanded k-space evanescent coupling technique.

We demonstrate a direct, single measurement technique for characterizing the dispersion of a photonic crystal waveguide (PCWG) using a tapered fiber evanescent coupling method. A highly curved fiber taper is used to probe the Fabry-Pérot spectrum of a closed PCWG over a broad k-space range, and from this measurement the dispersive properties of the waveguide can be found. Waveguide propagation losses can also be estimated from measurements of closed waveguides with different lengths. The validity of this method is demonstrated by comparing the results obtained on a 'W1' PCWG in chalcogenide glass with numerical simulation.

Nanowire coupling to photonic crystal nanocavities for single photon sources.

We demonstrate highly efficient evanescent coupling via a silica loop-nanowire, to ultra-small (0.5 (lambda/n)(3) ), InAs/InP quantum dot photonic crystal cavities, specifically designed for single photon source applications. This coupling technique enables the tuning of both the Q-factor and the wavelength of the cavity mode independently, which is highly relevant for single photon source applications. First, this allows for the optimization of the extraction efficiency while maintaining a high Purcell factor. Second, the cavity mode can be matched with a spectrally misaligned quantum dot without changing the structure or degrading the Q-factor: a 3 nm resonance shift is reported.