Generation of correlated photons in hydrogenated amorphous-silicon waveguides

TL;DR

This paper reports the first observation of correlated photon emission in hydrogenated amorphous-silicon waveguides, demonstrating their potential for nonlinear photonic applications despite higher loss compared to crystalline silicon.

Contribution

It is the first to observe correlated photon emission in hydrogenated amorphous-silicon waveguides and compares their nonlinear properties to crystalline silicon.

Findings

Amorphous silicon exhibits higher nonlinearity than crystalline silicon.

Correlated photon emission is successfully observed in amorphous silicon waveguides.

Amorphous silicon competes with crystalline silicon in photon generation despite higher loss.

Abstract

We report the first (to our knowledge) observation of correlated photon emission in hydrogenated amorphous- silicon waveguides. We compare this to photon generation in crystalline silicon waveguides with the same geome- try. In particular, we show that amorphous silicon has a higher nonlinearity and competes with crystalline silicon in spite of higher loss.