Low power inelastic light scattering at small detunings in silicon wire waveguides at telecom wavelengths

TL;DR

This paper investigates low power inelastic light scattering in silicon wire waveguides at telecom wavelengths, revealing linear temperature dependence and inverse frequency detuning behavior, with implications for quantum optics.

Contribution

It demonstrates the temperature and frequency dependence of inelastic scattering in silicon waveguides, suggesting scattering on a 1D thermal bath of excitations and discussing quantum optics implications.

Findings

Scattering intensity increases linearly with temperature from 300-575 K.

Photon flux decreases inversely with frequency detuning.

Implications for quantum optics applications are discussed.

Abstract

When a pump beam is propagating through a silicon nanophotonic waveguide, a very small fraction of the light is scattered to other frequencies. At very low intensity, the amount of scattered light is proportional to the power of the pump beam. We show that the scattering intensity increases linearly within the temperature range 300-575 K and that the photon flux decreases as the inverse of the frequency detuning {\nu} over the investigated bandwidth 0.4 THz < |{\nu}| < 2.5 THz. The simplest interpretation of these observations is that the pump beam is scattered on a 1 dimensional thermal bath of excitations. Finally, the implications of this scattering process for quantum optics applications of silicon nanophotonic structures are discussed.