Optical frequency comb generation from aluminum nitride micro-ring resonator

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the generation of optical frequency combs using high-Q aluminum nitride micro-ring resonators on silicon, achieved through dispersion engineering and phase matching optimization, with the Kerr coefficient experimentally determined.

Contribution

It introduces a novel on-chip frequency comb source based on aluminum nitride micro-ring resonators with engineered dispersion and phase matching.

Findings

Successful generation of frequency combs with a single continuous-wave laser

Extraction of aluminum nitride's Kerr coefficient from experiments

Achievement of near-zero dispersion at telecommunication wavelengths

Abstract

Aluminum nitride is an appealing nonlinear optical material for on-chip wavelength conversion. Here we report optical frequency comb generation from high quality factor aluminum nitride micro-ring resonators integrated on silicon substrates. By engineering the waveguide structure to achieve near-zero dispersion at telecommunication wavelengths and optimizing the phase matching for four-wave mixing, frequency combs are generated with a single wavelength continuous-wave pump laser. The Kerr coefficient (n2) of aluminum nitride is further extracted from our experimental results.