Phase Resolved Observations of Temporal Soliton Pulse Propagation in Silicon Nanowires

TL;DR

This paper investigates the propagation of temporal soliton pulses in silicon nanowires, combining experimental and numerical methods to demonstrate soliton behavior at short length scales with potential for optical data transfer.

Contribution

It provides the first combined experimental and numerical analysis of soliton pulse propagation in silicon nanowires, showing feasibility for integrated optical applications.

Findings

Soliton pulse broadening and splitting observed experimentally.

Numerical simulations matched experimental results.

Compression of solitons possible in centimeter-scale waveguides.

Abstract

An effort was conducted to study temporal soliton pulse propagation in silicon nano-waveguides. These nonlinear phenomenas were studied both numerically and experimentally with phase-resolved Frequency Resolved Optical Gating. Soliton pulse broadening, as well as pulse splitting from two-photon absorption, was observed experimentally, and the simulations matched all of the experimental results. Further simulations with the validated model have demonstrated that compression can be observed in centimeter-length waveguides. This study has demonstrated the feasibility of self-sustaining soliton pulse propagation at substantially shorter length scales than optical fibers, which offers much potential applications with regards to all-optical data transfer and computing.