Toward integrated synchronously pumped optical parametric oscillators in silicon nitride

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a tunable, integrated silicon nitride-based optical parametric oscillator pumped by a fiber laser, achieving significant spectral power enhancement and wide wavelength tuning, paving the way for chip-scale quantum and classical photonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a hybrid waveguide-fiber OPO in silicon nitride with wide tunability and integration potential on a chip, using four-wave mixing in a novel configuration.

Findings

35 dB spectral power enhancement of the idler

Wavelength tuning over 86 nm in the O-band

Integration feasibility at standard 100 MHz pump laser repetition rates

Abstract

We present a tunable, hybrid waveguide-fiber optical parametric oscillator (OPO) synchronously pumped by an ultra-fast fiber laser exploiting four-wave mixing (FWM) generated in silicon nitride waveguides. Parametric oscillation results in a 35 dB enhancement of the idler spectral power density in comparison to spontaneous FWM, with the ability of wide wavelength tuning over 86 nm in the O-band. Measurements of the oscillation threshold and the efficiency of the feedback loop reveal how an integration of the OPO on a single silicon nitride chip can be accomplished at standard repetition rates of pump lasers in the order of 100 MHz.