Coherent supercontinuum generation in a silicon photonic wire in the telecommunication wavelength range

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a fully coherent supercontinuum generation in silicon photonic wires at telecommunication wavelengths, with broad spectral coverage and high coherence maintained by two-photon absorption effects.

Contribution

It presents the first experimental demonstration of a coherent supercontinuum in silicon photonic wires at telecom wavelengths, supported by numerical simulations.

Findings

Supercontinuum spans 500 nm from 1575 nm pump

High coherence maintained despite high two-photon absorption

Numerical simulations agree well with experimental results

Abstract

We demonstrate a fully coherent supercontinuum spectrum spanning 500 nm from a silicon-on-insulator photonic wire waveguide pumped at 1575 nm wavelength. An excellent agreement with numerical simulations is reported. The simulations also show that a high level of two-photon absorption can essentially enforce the coherence of the spectral broadening process irrespective of the pump pulse duration.