Microcavity induced by few-layer GaSe crystal on silicon photonic crystal waveguide for efficient optical frequency conversion

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates a high-Q microcavity integrated with a few-layer GaSe crystal on silicon photonic waveguides, enabling record-high second-harmonic generation efficiency and broadband frequency conversion for integrated nonlinear photonics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method to induce high-quality microcavities on silicon photonic waveguides using GaSe integration, achieving record SHG efficiency and broadband frequency conversion.

Findings

Record-high SHG efficiency of 131100% W^-1 achieved.

Efficient broadband frequency conversion of incoherent light demonstrated.

High-Q microcavities enable enhanced light-matter interactions in silicon photonics.

Abstract

We demonstrate the post-induction of high-quality microcavity on silicon photonic crystal (PC) waveguide by integrating few-layer GaSe crystal, which promises highly efficient on-chip optical frequency conversions. The integration of GaSe shifts the dispersion bands of the PC waveguide mode into the bandgap, resulting in localized modes confined by the bare PC waveguides. Thanks to the small contrast of refractive index at the boundaries of microcavity, it is reliably to obtain quality (Q) factors exceeding 10^4. With the enhanced light-GaSe interaction by the microcavity modes and high second-order nonlinearity of GaSe, remarkable second-harmonic generation (SHG) and sum-frequency generation (SFG) are achieved. A record-high on-chip SHG conversion efficiency of 131100% W^-1 is obtained, enabling the clear SHG imaging of the resonant modes with the pump of sub-milliwatts continuous-wave (CW) laser. Driven by a pump of on-resonance CW laser, strong SFGs are successfully carried out with the other pump of a CW laser spanning over the broad telecom-band. Broadband frequency conversion of an incoherent superluminescent light-emitting diode with low spectral power density is also realized in the integrated GaSe-PC waveguide. Our results are expected to provide new strategies for high-efficiency light-matter interactions, nonlinear photonics and light source generation in silicon photonic integrated circuits.