Observations of four-wave mixing in slow-light silicon photonic crystal waveguides

Four-wave mixing is observed in a silicon W1 photonic crystal waveguide. The dispersion dependence of the idler conversion efficiency is measured and shown to be enhanced at wavelengths exhibiting slow group velocities. A 12-dB increase in the conversion efficiency is observed. Concurrently, a decrease in the conversion bandwidth is observed due to the increase in group velocity dispersion in the slow-light regime. The experimentally observed conversion efficiencies agree with the numerically modeled results. OCIS codes: (130.5296) Photonic crystal waveguides; (190.4380) Nonlinear optics, fourwave mixing References and links 1. H. Fukuda, K. Yamada, T. Shoji, M. Takahashi, T. Tsuchizawa, T. Watanabe, J. Takahashi, and S. Itabashi, "Four-wave mixing in silicon wire waveguides," Opt. Express 13, 4629-4637 (2005). 2. R. Espinola, J. Dadap, J. Osgood, S. McNab, and Y. Vlasov, "C-band wavelength conversion in silicon photonic wire waveguides," Opt. Express 13, 4341-4349 (2005). 3. M. A. Foster, A. C. Turner, R. Salem, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "Broad-band continuous-wave parametric wavelength conversion insilicon nanowaveguides," Opt. Express 15, 12949-12958 (2007). 4. M. A. Foster, A. C. Turner, J. E. Sharping, B. S. Schmidt, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "Broad-band optical parametric gain on a silicon photonic chip," Nature 441, 960-963 (2006). 5. Q. Lin, O. J. Painter, and G. P. Agrawal, "Nonlinear optical phenomena in silicon waveguides: modeling and applications," Opt. Express 15, 16604-16644 (2007). 6. A. C. Turner, M. A. Foster, A. L. Gaeta, and M. Lipson, "Ultra-low power parametric frequency conversion in a silicon microring resonator," Opt. Express 16, 4881-4887 (2008). 7. M. Ferrera, L. Razzari, D. Duchesne, R. Morandotti, Z. Yang, M. Liscidini, J. E. Sipe, S. Chu, B. E. Little, and D. J. Moss, "Low-power continuous-wave nonlinear optics in doped silica glass integrated waveguide structures," Nat Photon 2, 737-740 (2008). 8. C. Koos, P. Vorreau, T. Vallaitis, P. Dumon, W. Bogaerts, R. Baets, B. Esembeson, I. Biaggio, T. Michinobu, F. Diederich, W. Freude, and J. Leuthold, "All-optical high-speed signal processing with silicon–organic hybrid slot waveguides," Nature Photon 3, 216-219 (2009). 9. M. R. Lamont, B. Luther-Davies, D. Choi, S. Madden, X. Gai, and B. J. Eggleton, "Net-gain from a parametric amplifier on a chalcogenide optical chip," Opt. Express 16, 20374-20381 (2008). 10. Y. Kuo, H. Rong, V. Sih, S. Xu, M. Paniccia, and O. Cohen, "Demonstration of wavelength conversion at 40 Gb/s data rate in silicon waveguides," Opt. Express 14, 11721-11726 (2006). 11. B. G. Lee, A. Biberman, N. Ophir, A. C. Turner-Foster, M. A. Foster, M. Lipson, A. L. Gaeta, and K. Bergman, "160-Gb/s Broadband Wavelength Conversion on Chip Using Dispersion-Engineered Silicon Waveguides," in Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics/International Quantum Electronics Conference, OSA Technical Digest (CD) (Optical Society of America, 2009), paper CThBB1. 12. R. Salem, M. A. Foster, A. C. Turner, D. F. Geraghty, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "Signal regeneration using low-power four-wave mixing on silicon chip," Nat Photon 2, 35-38 (2008). 13. O. Kuzucu, Y. Okawachi, R. Salem, M. A. Foster, A. C. Turner-Foster, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "Spectral phase conjugation via temporal imaging," Opt. Express 17, 20605-20614 (2009). 14. M. A. Foster, R. Salem, Y. Okawachi, A. C. Turner-Foster, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "Ultrafast waveform compression using a time-domain telescope," Nat Photon 3, 581-585 (2009). 15. R. Salem, M. A. Foster, A. C. Turner, D. F. Geraghty, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "Optical time lens based on four-wave mixing on a silicon chip," Opt. Lett. 33, 1047-1049 (2008). 16. R. Salem, M. A. Foster, A. C. Turner-Foster, D. F. Geraghty, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "High-speed optical sampling using a silicon-chiptemporal magnifier," Opt. Express 17, 4324-4329 (2009). 17. Y. Okawachi, R. Salem, M. A. Foster, A. C. Turner-Foster, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "High-resolution spectroscopy using a frequency magnifier," Opt. Express 17, 5691-5697 (2009). 18. M. A. Foster, R. Salem, D. F. Geraghty, A. C. Turner-Foster, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, "Silicon-chip-based ultrafast optical oscilloscope," Nature 456, 81-84 (2008). 19. T. Baba, "Slow light in photonic crystals," Nat Photon 2, 465-473 (2008). 20. M. Notomi, K. Yamada, A. Shinya, J. Takahashi, C. Takahashi, and I. Yokohama, "Extremely Large GroupVelocity Dispersion of Line-Defect Waveguides in Photonic Crystal Slabs," Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 253902 (2001). 21. Y. A. Vlasov, M. O'Boyle, H. F. Hamann, and S. J. McNab, "Active control of slow light on a chip with photonic crystal waveguides," Nature 438, 65-69 (2005). 22. T. F. Krauss, "Slow light in photonic crystal waveguides," J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 40, 2666-2670 (2007). 23. H. Oda, K. Inoue, A. Yamanaka, N. Ikeda, Y. Sugimoto, and K. Asakawa, "Light amplification by stimulated Raman scattering in AlGaAs-based photonic-crystal line-defect waveguides," Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 051114 (2008). 24. J. F. McMillan, M. Yu, D. Kwong, and C. W. Wong, "Observation of spontaneous Raman scattering in silicon slow-light photonic crystal waveguides," Appl. Phys. Lett. 93, 251105 (2008). 25. J. F. McMillan, X. Yang, N. C. Panoiu, R. M. Osgood, and C. W. Wong, "Enhanced stimulated Raman scattering in slow-light photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Lett. 31, 1235-1237 (2006). 26. C. Husko, S. Combrié, Q. V. Tran, F. Raineri, C. W. Wong, and A. De Rossi, "Non-trivial scaling of self-phase modulation and three-photon absorptionin III-V photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Express 17, 22442-22451 (2009). 27. H. Oda, K. Inoue, Y. Tanaka, N. Ikeda, Y. Sugimoto, H. Ishikawa, and K. Asakawa, "Self-phase modulation in photonic-crystal-slab line-defect waveguides," Appl. Phys. Lett. 90, 231102 (2007). 28. S. Combrié, Q. V. Tran, A. De Rossi, C. Husko, and P. Colman, "High quality GaInP nonlinear photonic crystals with minimized nonlinear absorption," Appl. Phys. Lett. 95, 221108 (2009). 29. K. Inoue, H. Oda, N. Ikeda, and K. Asakawa, "Enhanced third-order nonlinear effects in slow-light photoniccrystal slab waveguides of line-defect," Opt. Express 17, 7206-7216 (2009). 30. N. C. Panoiu, J. F. McMillan, and C. W. Wong, "Theoretical Analysis of Pulse Dynamics in Silicon Photonic Crystal Wire Waveguides," IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron. 16, 257-266 (2010). 31. B. Corcoran, C. Bru-Chevallier, GrilletC., MossD. J., EggletonB. J., WhiteT. P., O'FaolainL., and KraussT. F., "Green light emission in silicon through slow-light enhanced third-harmonic generation in photonic-crystal waveguides," Nat Photon 3, 206-210 (2009). 32. C. Monat, B. Corcoran, M. Ebnali-Heidari, C. Grillet, B. J. Eggleton, T. P. White, L. O'Faolain, and T. F. Krauss, "Slow light enhancement of nonlinear effects in silicon engineered photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Express 17, 2944-2953 (2009). 33. M. Ebnali-Heidari, C. Monat, C. Grillet, and M. K. Moravvej-Farshi, "A proposal for enhancing four-wave mixing in slow light engineered photonic crystal waveguides and its application to optical regeneration," Opt. Express 17, 18340-18353 (2009). 34. Y. Liu and C. Jiang, "Enhanced parametric amplification in slow-light photonic crystal waveguides," Chinese Science Bulletin 54, 2221-2224 (2009). 35. K. Masao, K. Eiichi, S. Akihiko, T. Takasumi, and N. Masaya, "Optical Kerr Nonlinearity in Silicon Photonic Crystal Waveguides-Four-Wave Mixing Process-," IEIC Technical Report (Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers) 106, 55-58 (2006). 36. V. Eckhouse, I. Cestier, G. Eisenstein, S. Combrie, P. Colman, A. De Rossi, M. Santagiustina, C. Someda, and G. Vadala, "Highly efficient four wave mixing in GaInP photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Lett. (to be published) 37. K. Suzuki, Y. Hamachi, and T. Baba, "Fabrication and characterization of chalcogenide glass photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Express 17, 22393-22400 (2009). 38. J. Hansryd, P. Andrekson, M. Westlund, J. Li, and P. Hedekvist, "Fiber-based optical parametric amplifiers and their applications," IEEE J. Select. Topics Quantum Electron. 8, 506-520 (2002). 39. S. Assefa and Y. A. Vlasov, "High-order dispersion in photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Express 15, 1756217569 (2007). 40. S. Johnson and J. Joannopoulos, "Block-iterative frequency-domain methods for Maxwell's equations in a planewave basis," Opt. Express 8, 173-190 (2001). 41. L. O'Faolain, T. P. White, D. O'Brien, X. Yuan, M. D. Settle, and T. F. Krauss, "Dependence of extrinsic loss on group velocity in photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Express 15, 13129-13138 (2007). 42. R. J. P. Engelen, D. Mori, T. Baba, and L. Kuipers, "Two Regimes of Slow-Light Losses Revealed by Adiabatic Reduction of Group Velocity," Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 103901 (2008). 43. M. Patterson, S. Hughes, S. Combrié, N. Tran, A. De Rossi, R. Gabet, and Y. Jaouën, "Disorder-Induced Coherent Scattering in Slow-Light Photonic Crystal Waveguides," Phys. Rev. Lett. 102, 253903 (2009). 44. M. Notomi, A. Shinya, S. Mitsugi, E. Kuramochi, and H. Ryu, "Waveguides, resonators and their coupled elements in photonic crystal slabs," Opt. Express 12, 1551-1561 (2004). 45. E. Dulkeith, S. J. McNab, and Y. A. Vlasov, "Mapping the optical properties of slab-type two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguides," Phys. Rev. B 72, 115102 (2005). 46. L. Jia, M. Geng, L. Zhang, L. Yang, P. Chen, Y. Liu, Q. Fang, and M. Yu, "Effects of waveguide length and pump power on the efficiency of wavelength conversion in silicon nanowire waveguides," Opt. Lett. 34, 35023504 (2009). 47. J. Li, T. P. White, L. O'Faolain, A. Gomez-Iglesias, and T. F. Krauss, "Systematic design of flat band slow light in photonic crystal waveguides," Opt. Express 16, 6227-6232 (2008). 48. Y. Hamachi, S. Kubo, and T. Baba, "Slow light with low dispersion and nonlinear enhancement in a latticeshifted photonic crystal waveguide," Opt. Lett. 34, 1072-1074 (2009). 49. D. Mori, S. Kubo, H. Sasaki, and T. Baba, "Experimental demonstration of wideband dispersion-compensated slow light by a chirped photonic crystal directional coupler," Opt. Express 15, 5264-5270 (2007). 50. S. Hughes, L. Ramunno, J. F. Young, and J. E. Sipe, "Extrinsic Optical Scattering Loss in Photonic Crystal Waveguides: Role of Fabrication Disorder and Photon Group Velocity," Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 033903 (2005). 51. E. Kuramochi, M. Notomi, S. Hughes, A. Shinya, T. Watanabe, and L. Ramunno, "Disorder-induced scattering loss of line-defect waveguides in photonic crystal slabs," Phys. Rev. B 72, 161318-4 (2005). 52. R. J. P. Engelen, D. Mori, T. Baba, and L. Kuipers, "Two Regimes of Slow-Light Losses Revealed by Adiabatic Reduction of Group Velocity," Phys. Rev. Lett. 101, 103901 (2008). 53. F. Morichetti, A. Canciamilla, C. Ferrari, M. Torregiani, A. Melloni, and M. Martinelli, "Roughness Induced Backscattering in Optical Silicon Waveguides," Phys. Rev. Lett. 104, 033902 (2010). 54. M. Patterson, S. Hughes, S. Schulz, D. M. Beggs, T. P. White, L. O’Faolain, and T. F. Krauss, "Disorderinduced incoherent scattering losses in photonic crystal waveguides: Bloch mode reshaping, multiple scattering, and breakdown of the Beer-Lambert law," Phys. Rev. B 80, 195305 (2009). 55. G. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 3rd ed. (Academic Press, 2001).