Soliton Propagation with Cross Phase Modulation in Silicon Photonic Crystal Waveguides

TL;DR

This paper investigates the use of cross phase modulation to sustain soliton pulses in silicon photonic crystal waveguides, overcoming dissipation caused by two-photon absorption through numerical simulations.

Contribution

It demonstrates, via numerical modeling, that cross phase modulation can enable stable soliton propagation in silicon photonic crystal waveguides despite two-photon absorption effects.

Findings

Cross phase modulation helps maintain soliton pulses.

Two-photon absorption causes dissipation in short waveguides.

Solitons can be sustained over longer distances with cross phase modulation.

Abstract

An effort was conducted to numerically determine, using the Nonlinear Schrodinger Split-Step Fourier method, if using cross phase modulation could cause temporal soliton pulse propagation in a silicon slow-light photonic crystal waveguide shorter than a millimeter. The simulations demonstrated that due to the higher powers and shorter scales of photonic crystals, two-photon absorption would cause an optical soliton pulse to be extremely dissipative. The model demonstrated, however, that by utilizing cross-phase modulation, it is possible to sustain a compressed soliton pulse within a silicon photonic crystal waveguide subjected to two-photon absorption over longer relative distances.