Stimulated Brillouin scattering enhancement in silicon inverse opal waveguides

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that silicon inverse opal waveguides significantly enhance Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS) performance, overcoming silicon's acoustic limitations, and achieve SBS gains comparable to chalcogenide glasses for on-chip applications.

Contribution

The study introduces silicon inverse opal waveguides that greatly improve acoustic properties and SBS gain, representing a novel approach for on-chip optoacoustic devices.

Findings

SBS gain coefficient in silicon inverse opals is increased by over two orders of magnitude.

Designed waveguides with silicon inverse opals achieve SBS gains similar to chalcogenide glass waveguides.

The research opens new avenues for on-chip opto-acoustic applications.

Abstract

Silicon is an ideal material for on-chip applications, however its poor acoustic properties limit its performance for important optoacoustic applications, particularly for Stimulated Brillouin Scattering (SBS). We theoretically show that silicon inverse opals exhibit a strongly improved acoustic performance that enhances the bulk SBS gain coefficient by more than two orders of magnitude. We also design a waveguide that incorporates silicon inverse opals and which has SBS gain values that are comparable with chalcogenide glass waveguides. This research opens new directions for opto-acoustic applications in on-chip material systems.