Silicon waveguide with four zero-dispersion wavelengths and its application in on-chip octave-spanning supercontinuum generation

doi:10.1364/OE.20.001685

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Silicon waveguide with four zero-dispersion wavelengths and its application in on-chip octave-spanning supercontinuum generation

Lin Zhang, Qiang Lin, Yang Yue, Yan Yan, Raymond G. Beausoleil, and Alan E. Willner »View Author Affiliations

Optics Express, Vol. 20, Issue 2, pp. 1685-1690 (2012)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1364/OE.20.001685

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▸ Article Outline
– Abstract
1. Introduction
2. Dispersion-flattened silicon slot waveguide with four ZDWs
3. Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in Si waveguides
4. Conclusion
– References and links

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Abstract

We propose a novel silicon waveguide that exhibits four zero-dispersion wavelengths for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, with a flattened dispersion over a 670-nm bandwidth. This holds a great potential for exploration of new nonlinear effects and achievement of ultra-broadband signal processing on a silicon chip. As an example, we show that an octave-spanning supercontinuum assisted by dispersive wave generation can be obtained in silicon, over a wavelength range from 1217 to 2451 nm, almost from bandgap wavelength to half-bandgap wavelength. Input pulse is greatly compressed to 10 fs.

1. Introduction

Chromatic dispersion is one of essential properties of an optical waveguide. It not only shapes the temporal waveform of an optical pulse traveling along the waveguide, but also acts together with nonlinearity to affect pulse spectral broadening [1

G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 3rd ed. (Academic, 2001).

]. In particular, zero-dispersion wavelength (ZDW) plays a critical role in determining phase matching conditions and conversion efficiency in nonlinear parametric processes [1

G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 3rd ed. (Academic, 2001).

]. Silica step-index optical fibers usually exhibit one ZDW at near infrared wavelengths of interest, while photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) provide a great opportunity to tailor dispersion profile, being able to produce three [2

A. Ferrando, E. Silvestre, J. J. Miret, and P. Andrés, “Nearly zero ultraflattened dispersion in photonic crystal fibers,” Opt. Lett. 25(11), 790–792 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

F. Poletti, V. Finazzi, T. M. Monro, N. G. R. Broderick, V. Tse, and D. J. Richardson, “Inverse design and fabrication tolerances of ultra-flattened dispersion holey fibers,” Opt. Express 13(10), 3728–3736 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

] or four [4

D. J. J. Hu, P. P. Shum, C. Lu, and G. Ren, “Dispersion-flattened polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber for nonlinear applications,” Opt. Commun. 282(20), 4072–4076 (2009).

H. Xu, J. Wu, K. Xu, Y. Dai, C. Xu, and J. Lin, “Ultra-flattened chromatic dispersion control for circular photonic crystal fibers,” J. Opt. A, Pure Appl. Opt. 13(5), 055405 (2011).

] ZDWs and greatly tune their spectral positions. Such a spectral profile of the dispersion strongly influences nonlinear processes in fibers (e.g., supercontinuum generation) and generates rich and unprecedented phenomena [6

W. H. Reeves, D. V. Skryabin, F. Biancalana, J. C. Knight, P. St. J. Russell, F. G. Omenetto, A. Efimov, and A. J. Taylor, “Transformation and control of ultra-short pulses in dispersion-engineered photonic crystal fibres,” Nature 424(6948), 511–515 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

–10

S. Stark, F. Biancalana, A. Podlipensky, and P. St. J. Russell, “Nonlinear wavelength conversion in photonic crystal fibers with three zero-dispersion points,” Phys. Rev. A 83(2), 023808 (2011). [CrossRef]

Integrated waveguides with high nonlinearity have generated much excitement recently [11

J. I. Dadap, N. C. Panoiu, X. Chen, I.-W. Hsieh, X. Liu, C.-Y. Chou, E. Dulkeith, S. J. McNab, F. Xia, W. M. J. Green, L. Sekaric, Y. A. Vlasov, and R. M. Osgood Jr., “Nonlinear-optical phase modification in dispersion-engineered Si photonic wires,” Opt. Express 16(2), 1280–1299 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

–15

B. J. Eggleton, B. Luther-Davies, and K. Richardson, “Chalcogenide photonics,” Nat. Photonics 5, 141 (2011).

]. In particular, flat and low dispersion over a wide wavelength range becomes desirable for femtosecond pulses or octave-spanning spectral broadening. Dispersion tailoring with two ZDWs in high-index-contrast waveguides was presented [16

M. R. Lamont, C. M. de Sterke, and B. J. Eggleton, “Dispersion engineering of highly nonlinear As₂S₃ waveguides for parametric gain and wavelength conversion,” Opt. Express 15(15), 9458–9463 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

–19

S. Mas, J. Caraquitena, J. V. Galán, P. Sanchis, and J. Martí, “Tailoring the dispersion behavior of silicon nanophotonic slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(20), 20839–20844 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. More recently, a dispersion flattening technique was proposed, producing 20 times better dispersion flatness and three ZDWs [20

L. Zhang, Y. Yue, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “Flattened dispersion in silicon slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(19), 20529–20534 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. Dispersion tailoring assists octave-spanning super-continuum generation in integrated chalcogenide and silicon nitride waveguides [21

D. D. Hudson, S. A. Dekker, E. C. Mägi, A. C. Judge, S. D. Jackson, E. Li, J. S. Sanghera, L. B. Shaw, I. D. Aggarwal, and B. J. Eggleton, “Octave spanning supercontinuum in an As₂S₃ taper using ultralow pump pulse energy,” Opt. Lett. 36(7), 1122–1124 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

–23

R. Halir, Y. Okawachi, J. S. Levy, M. A. Foster, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, “Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in CMOS-compatible silicon nitride waveguides,” in CLEO - Laser Applications to Photonic Applications 2011, paper PDPA6 (2011).

], where index contrast is lower than in silicon waveguides and waveguide dispersion becomes smaller. Nevertheless, such supercontinuum generation requires a high peak power of input femtosecond pulses, which is feasible only in a material platform with two-photon absorption (TPA) absent or extremely low. In silicon waveguides, strong dispersion and considerable TPA make it quite challenging to achieve octave-spanning supercontinua [24

Ö. Boyraz, P. Koonath, V. Raghunathan, and B. Jalali, “All optical switching and continuum generation in silicon waveguides,” Opt. Express 12(17), 4094–4102 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

–27

B. Kuyken, X. Liu, R. M. Osgood, Y. A. Vlasov, R. Baets, G. Roelkens, and W. M. Green, “Generation of a telecom-to-mid-infrared spanning supercontinuum using silicon-on-insulator wire waveguides,” in CLEO - Laser Applications to Photonic Applications 2011, paper CTuS1 (2011).

We propose a silicon slot waveguide that exhibits four ZDWs in a wavelength range from 1461 and 2074 nm, for the first time to the best of our knowledge. Dispersion values and ZDW locations can be varied, which provides a great opportunity to explore rich nonlinear effects such as solitons propagation, modulation instability, and supercontinuum and frequency comb generation. We show by simulation that the unique dispersion assists octave-spanning supercontinuum generation from 1217 to 2451 nm on a silicon chip. In this process, the input pulse is greatly compressed to 10 fs.

2. Dispersion-flattened silicon slot waveguide with four ZDWs

The waveguide has a horizontal silica slot formed between two silicon layers, as shown in Fig. 1 . The waveguide parameters are: width W = 610 nm, upper height H_u = 136 nm, lower height H_l = 344 nm, and slot height H_s = 40 nm. The buried oxide substrate is 2-μm thick. To calculate the dispersion of quasi-TM mode (vertically polarized), we obtain its effective index of refraction as a function of wavelength [20

L. Zhang, Y. Yue, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “Flattened dispersion in silicon slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(19), 20529–20534 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

], using a full-vector mode solver, COMSOL, with material dispersions of Si and SiO₂ taken into account.

Fig. 1 Silicon slot waveguide for flattened dispersion with four ZDWs. A horizontal silica slot is between two silicon layers. Optical power distributions are shown near the ZDWs.

Figure 2 shows silicon material dispersion and the flattened dispersion of the quasi-TM mode, calculated as D = -(c/λ)∙(d²n_eff/dλ²). Dispersion varies between −22 and + 20 ps/(nm·km) over a 667-nm bandwidth, from 1435 to 2102 nm. Four ZDWs are found at 1461, 1618, 1889, and 2074 nm, respectively, as shown in Fig. 2(b). The group delay, defined as τ = (1/c)∙(n_eff-λ∙dn_eff/dλ), has a small variation of 40 fs/cm from 1403 to 2146 nm, which produces ultra-broadband group-velocity match for femtosecond pulse interactions.

Fig. 2 (a) Material dispersion in silicon and flattened dispersion with four ZDWs in the proposed silicon slot waveguide. (b) A close-up view of dispersion and group delay profiles.

The idea of generating four ZDWs is the following. First, material dispersion in silicon is always negative at wavelengths of interest (see Fig. 2(a)). Forming a waveguide, we see that, at short wavelengths close to the Si bandgap wavelength (~1100 nm), material dispersion is dominant, so overall dispersion is negative. At long wavelengths where the guided mode approaches cut-off, the dispersion is dominated by waveguide dispersion, which is negative [18

L. Zhang, Y. Yue, Y. Xiao-Li, J. Wang, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “Flat and low dispersion in highly nonlinear slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(12), 13187–13193 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. Thus, as long as one tailors waveguide dimensions so that, in the middle wavelength range, waveguide dispersion is positive and stronger than material dispersion, a positive overall dispersion can be obtained with two ZDWs [18

]. Then, we use the anti-crossing effect caused by mode transition, that is, the guided mode evolves from being more strip-mode-like to being more slot-mode-like as wavelength increases (see Fig. 1). This induces additional negative waveguide dispersion [20

L. Zhang, Y. Yue, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “Flattened dispersion in silicon slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(19), 20529–20534 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

] and generates another two ZDWs in the middle.

One can change the structural parameters in the waveguide around the values given above to tailor dispersion value and slope. We individually decrease the upper height and increase the lower height, keeping the others the same. The dispersion profile is moved from normal to anomalous dispersion regime in Fig. 3 , with a dispersion value change of 18.5 and 15.9 ps/(nm·km) per nm, respectively. No significant change in dispersion slope is observed.

Fig. 3 Dispersion is increased from normal to anomalous dispersion regime as (a) the upper height decreases or (b) the lower height increases, with a small change in dispersion slope.

Dispersion slope can be greatly tailored by varying the slot height from 32 to 48 nm, as shown in Fig. 4(a) . On the other hand, ZDWs are moved with a spacing change among the ZDWs as the waveguide width is increased, which causes a slight rotation of the dispersion profile. The dispersion tailorability by varying the structural parameters gives us a valuable space for device design, although the dispersion properties in the high-index-contrast waveguides could be sensitive to fabrication imperfections.

Fig. 4 (a) Dispersion slope can be greatly change by varying the slot height. (b) Spacing of ZDWs is varied by increasing the waveguide width.

3. Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in Si waveguides

The flattened dispersion profile with multiple ZDWs can be used to generate rich nonlinear effects, and one of advantages of using it is to generate octave-spanning supercontinua. We note that supercontinuum generation in microstructured fiber [28

J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 78(4), 1135–1184 (2006). [CrossRef]

,29

D. V. Skryabin and A. V. Gorbach, “Colloquium: Looking at a soliton through the prism of optical supercontinuum,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 82(2), 1287–1299 (2010). [CrossRef]

] critically relies on its engineered dispersion. In normal dispersion regime, self-phase modulation (SPM) is mainly responsible for pulse spectral broadening, while higher-order soliton fission and dispersive wave generation are identified to be the main reasons for supercontinuum generation in anomalous dispersion regime [28

J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 78(4), 1135–1184 (2006). [CrossRef]

]. Recently, we showed that, with nearly zero dispersion over a wide wavelength band, the self-steepening effect in nonlinear pulse propagation can greatly enhance spectral broadening to produce a two-octave supercontinuum on a chip [22

L. Zhang, Y. Yan, Y. Yue, Q. Lin, O. Painter, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “On-chip two-octave supercontinuum generation by enhancing self-steepening of optical pulses,” Opt. Express 19(12), 11584–11590 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. To generate a supercontinuum in silicon, the approaches based on self-steepening and SPM tend to require very high peak power, which becomes impractical due to TPA in silicon [30

P. Koonath, D. R. Solli, and B. Jalali, “Limiting nature of continuum generation in silicon,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93(9), 091114 (2008). [CrossRef]

]. Then, operating in the anomalous dispersion regime, one either used femtosecond pulses to reduce free carrier absorption [25

L. Yin, Q. Lin, and G. P. Agrawal, “Soliton fission and supercontinuum generation in silicon waveguides,” Opt. Lett. 32(4), 391–393 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

,26

I.-W. Hsieh, X. Chen, X. Liu, J. I. Dadap, N. C. Panoiu, C.-Y. Chou, F. Xia, W. M. Green, Y. A. Vlasov, and R. M. Osgood, “Supercontinuum generation in silicon photonic wires,” Opt. Express 15(23), 15242–15249 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

] or moved to mid-infrared wavelengths to mitigate TPA [27

], but, without sufficient capability to engineer the dispersion of high-index-contrast Si waveguides, octave-spanning supercontinuum generation still remains challenging.

Tailoring the dispersion to produce the saddle-shaped dispersion profile (four ZDWs) is substantially different from what was proposed in [20

L. Zhang, Y. Yue, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “Flattened dispersion in silicon slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(19), 20529–20534 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

], in which three ZDWs were obtained in low-dispersion bandwidth, in terms of the ability to broaden pulse spectrum. This is because a dispersion profile with three ZDWs has strong anomalous dispersion at the long-wavelength end of the low-dispersion bandwidth, where dispersive wave can hardly be generated [28

J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 78(4), 1135–1184 (2006). [CrossRef]

]. In contrast, being able to have the saddle-shaped dispersion, one not only achieves flat dispersion over an even wider bandwidth but also, more importantly, produces normal dispersion at both ends of the bandwidth. Assisted by the dispersive wave generation at the both ends, an octave-spanning supercontinuum is finally obtained in Si.

Here we choose width W = 610 nm, upper height H_u = 132 nm, lower height H_l = 344 nm, and slot height H_s = 40 nm. The flattened part of the dispersion profile is intentionally moved into anomalous dispersion regime, as shown in Fig. 3(a). Two ZDWs are located at 1418 and 2108 nm. Two local maxima of dispersion are 80 and 79 ps/(nm·km) at 1540 nm and 1965 nm wavelengths, respectively, and a local minimum of dispersion is 53.7 ps/(nm·km) at 1750 nm. To model supercontinuum generation, we use the following nonlinear envelope equation, with high-order dispersion of nonlinearity parameters including nonlinear index n₂, TPA coefficient β_TPA, and effective mode area A_eff:

(\frac{\partial}{\partial z} + \frac{α}{2} + i \sum_{m = 2}^{\infty} \frac{{(- i)}^{m} β_{m} \partial^{m}}{m! \partial t^{m}}) A = \sum_{n = 0}^{\infty} \frac{- i γ_{n}}{n!} {(\frac{- i}{2})}^{n} (1 - \frac{i}{ω_{0}} \frac{\partial}{\partial t}) [A^{*} \frac{\partial^{n}}{\partial t^{n}} (A^{2})]

where A = A(z,t) is the complex amplitude of an optical pulse, and γ_n is the nth-order dispersion coefficient of nonlinearity, γ_n = ω₀·∂ⁿ[γ(ω)/ω]/∂ωⁿ. We include up to the 6th-order here. Other terms are defined the same way in [22

], and Raman terms are not needed for the TM-mode [12

Q. Lin, O. J. Painter, and G. P. Agrawal, “Nonlinear optical phenomena in silicon waveguides: modeling and applications,” Opt. Express 15(25), 16604–16644 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. Detailed derivation on the above equation is given in [31

Q. Lin, “Generalized nonlinear envelope equation with high-order dispersion of nonlinearity” (to be published).

]. It was confirmed that the simulation of pulse propagations using nonlinear envelope equations is quite accurate [32

G. Genty, P. Kinsler, B. Kibler, and J. M. Dudley, “Nonlinear envelope equation modeling of sub-cycle dynamics and harmonic generation in nonlinear waveguides,” Opt. Express 15(9), 5382–5387 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. The propagation loss is set to be 7 dB/cm, which may be lower in practice [33

R. Sun, P. Dong, N.-N. Feng, C.-Y. Hong, J. Michel, M. Lipson, and L. Kimerling, “Horizontal single and multiple slot waveguides: optical transmission at λ = 1550 nm,” Opt. Express 15(26), 17967–17972 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

], since more light is confined in lower crystal silicon layer in our case. All order dispersion terms and carrier dynamics are included as shown in [25

L. Yin, Q. Lin, and G. P. Agrawal, “Soliton fission and supercontinuum generation in silicon waveguides,” Opt. Lett. 32(4), 391–393 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

], and the free-carrier effects play a negligible role in the nonlinear processes. We estimate the dispersion of modal distribution by calculating the mode overlap factor given in [12

Q. Lin, O. J. Painter, and G. P. Agrawal, “Nonlinear optical phenomena in silicon waveguides: modeling and applications,” Opt. Express 15(25), 16604–16644 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

] for the widely separated wavelengths at 1230, 1810, and 2395 nm. The overlap factor equals 0.745 between 1230 and 1810 nm and 0.971 between 1810 and 2395 nm. We believe that the major results presented here would hold well when the mode overlap is included. In our simulations, the time window length is 50 ps (Δf = 20 GHz), and the whole bandwidth in the frequency domain is 1000 THz.

We launch a chirp-free hyperbolic secant pulse into the dispersion-flattened silicon slot waveguide. The pulse has the center wavelength at 1810 nm and a full width at half-maximum (FWHM) T₀ of 120 fs. Its peak power is 62 W. At 1810 nm, we find nonlinear index n₂=7.2×10⁻¹⁸ m²/W and TPA coefficient β_TPA=5.3×10⁻¹² m/W, based on the measurements in [34

A. D. Bristow, N. Rotenberg, and H. M. van Driel, “Two-photon absorption and Kerr coefficients of silicon for 850-2200 nm,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 90(19), 191104 (2007). [CrossRef]

,35

Q. Lin, J. Zhang, G. Piredda, R. W. Boyd, P. M. Fauchet, and G. P. Agrawal, “Dispersion of silicon nonlinearities in the near-infrared region,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 91(2), 021111 (2007). [CrossRef]

]. The nonlinear coefficient γ of the waveguide is (102+10.8j) /(m·W) using a full-vector model [36

S. Afshar V and T. M. Monro, “A full vectorial model for pulse propagation in emerging waveguides with subwavelength structures part I: Kerr nonlinearity,” Opt. Express 17(4), 2298–2318 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

]. The shock time τ equals (1.16+0.33j) fs. At 1810 nm, the 2^nd-order dispersion coefficient β₂ = −0.999 ps²/km. Therefore, characteristic dispersion and nonlinearity lengths L_D = T₀²/|β₂| = 14.4 cm and L_N = 1/real(γ)P = 0.16 mm, which gives a soliton number of 30.

Figure 5 shows pulse spectral broadening along the waveguide. At the beginning of the propagation, SPM causes obvious spectral broadening. Due to a relatively low dispersion over a wide band and thus small walk-off of frequency components, the pulse is significantly compressed, which further enhances the spectral broadening. In addition, the pulse transfers energy to high and low spectral components located around 1230 and 2395 nm, where dispersion is normal. This is likely to be dispersive wave generation, and group delay matches for 1300, 1810 and 2240 nm. At a propagation distance of 3.5 mm, the total spectrum bandwidth at −25 dB level is 1234 nm, from 1217 to 2451 nm, more than one octave. Accordingly, the compressed pulse has a FWHM of 12.2 fs, as shown in Fig. 5(b). The pulse waveform has beating patterns at rising and falling edges, which correspond to the dispersive waves at long and short wavelengths, respectively. With an input pulse FWHM of 60 fs, we obtain a supercontinuum of 1250 nm at −17 dB level, from 1200 to 2450 nm, when the pulse propagates 1.6 mm, exhibiting a FWHM reduced to 10.1 fs, as shown in Fig. 5(d). In these two cases, the pulse root-mean-square width is 155 and 73.6 fs, respectively, due to the pulse pedestals caused by dispersive waves. No soliton fission is observed, and we expect high spectral coherence.

Fig. 5 Pulse spectra and waveforms, for input pulse FWHM of 120 fs in (a, b) and 60 fs in (c, d). The waveforms are captured at 3.5 mm and 1.6 mm, respectively.

4. Conclusion

We present a dispersion tailoring technique that produces four ZDWs in a silicon slot waveguide. With a flattened dispersion over a 670-nm bandwidth and normal dispersion at both short- and long-wavelength ends of this bandwidth, one can generate octave-spanning supercontinua in near-infrared wavelength region using the silicon waveguides, which would enable numerous chip-scale sub-systems for frequency metrology, sensing, optical coherence tomography, pulse compression, microscopy and spectroscopy, and telecommunication.

Acknowledgments

This work is supported by HP Labs.

References and links

1.	G. P. Agrawal, Nonlinear Fiber Optics, 3rd ed. (Academic, 2001).
2.	A. Ferrando, E. Silvestre, J. J. Miret, and P. Andrés, “Nearly zero ultraflattened dispersion in photonic crystal fibers,” Opt. Lett. 25(11), 790–792 (2000). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
3.	F. Poletti, V. Finazzi, T. M. Monro, N. G. R. Broderick, V. Tse, and D. J. Richardson, “Inverse design and fabrication tolerances of ultra-flattened dispersion holey fibers,” Opt. Express 13(10), 3728–3736 (2005). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
4.	D. J. J. Hu, P. P. Shum, C. Lu, and G. Ren, “Dispersion-flattened polarization-maintaining photonic crystal fiber for nonlinear applications,” Opt. Commun. 282(20), 4072–4076 (2009).
5.	H. Xu, J. Wu, K. Xu, Y. Dai, C. Xu, and J. Lin, “Ultra-flattened chromatic dispersion control for circular photonic crystal fibers,” J. Opt. A, Pure Appl. Opt. 13(5), 055405 (2011).
6.	W. H. Reeves, D. V. Skryabin, F. Biancalana, J. C. Knight, P. St. J. Russell, F. G. Omenetto, A. Efimov, and A. J. Taylor, “Transformation and control of ultra-short pulses in dispersion-engineered photonic crystal fibres,” Nature 424(6948), 511–515 (2003). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
7.	K. Saitoh and M. Koshiba, “Highly nonlinear dispersion-flattened photonic crystal fibers for supercontinuum generation in a telecommunication window,” Opt. Express 12(10), 2027–2032 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
8.	M. H. Frosz, P. Falk, and O. Bang, “The role of the second zero-dispersion wavelength in generation of supercontinua and bright-bright soliton-pairs across the zero-dispersion wavelength,” Opt. Express 13(16), 6181–6192 (2005).
9.	W.-Q. Zhang, S. Afshar V, and T. M. Monro, “A genetic algorithm based approach to fiber design for high coherence and large bandwidth supercontinuum generation,” Opt. Express 17(21), 19311–19327 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
10.	S. Stark, F. Biancalana, A. Podlipensky, and P. St. J. Russell, “Nonlinear wavelength conversion in photonic crystal fibers with three zero-dispersion points,” Phys. Rev. A 83(2), 023808 (2011). [CrossRef]
11.	J. I. Dadap, N. C. Panoiu, X. Chen, I.-W. Hsieh, X. Liu, C.-Y. Chou, E. Dulkeith, S. J. McNab, F. Xia, W. M. J. Green, L. Sekaric, Y. A. Vlasov, and R. M. Osgood Jr., “Nonlinear-optical phase modification in dispersion-engineered Si photonic wires,” Opt. Express 16(2), 1280–1299 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
12.	Q. Lin, O. J. Painter, and G. P. Agrawal, “Nonlinear optical phenomena in silicon waveguides: modeling and applications,” Opt. Express 15(25), 16604–16644 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
13.	X. Chen, N. C. Panoiu, and R. M. Osgood Jr., “Theory of Raman-mediated pulsed amplification in silicon-wire waveguides,” IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 42(2), 160–170 (2006). [CrossRef]
14.	J. Leuthold, C. Koos, and W. Freude, “Nonlinear silicon photonics,” Nat. Photonics 4(8), 535–544 (2010). [CrossRef]
15.	B. J. Eggleton, B. Luther-Davies, and K. Richardson, “Chalcogenide photonics,” Nat. Photonics 5, 141 (2011).
16.	M. R. Lamont, C. M. de Sterke, and B. J. Eggleton, “Dispersion engineering of highly nonlinear As₂S₃ waveguides for parametric gain and wavelength conversion,” Opt. Express 15(15), 9458–9463 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
17.	X. Liu, W. M. J. Green, X. Chen, I.-W. Hsieh, J. I. Dadap, Y. A. Vlasov, and R. M. Osgood Jr., “Conformal dielectric overlayers for engineering dispersion and effective nonlinearity of silicon nanophotonic wires,” Opt. Lett. 33(24), 2889–2891 (2008). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
18.	L. Zhang, Y. Yue, Y. Xiao-Li, J. Wang, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “Flat and low dispersion in highly nonlinear slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(12), 13187–13193 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
19.	S. Mas, J. Caraquitena, J. V. Galán, P. Sanchis, and J. Martí, “Tailoring the dispersion behavior of silicon nanophotonic slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(20), 20839–20844 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
20.	L. Zhang, Y. Yue, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “Flattened dispersion in silicon slot waveguides,” Opt. Express 18(19), 20529–20534 (2010). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
21.	D. D. Hudson, S. A. Dekker, E. C. Mägi, A. C. Judge, S. D. Jackson, E. Li, J. S. Sanghera, L. B. Shaw, I. D. Aggarwal, and B. J. Eggleton, “Octave spanning supercontinuum in an As₂S₃ taper using ultralow pump pulse energy,” Opt. Lett. 36(7), 1122–1124 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
22.	L. Zhang, Y. Yan, Y. Yue, Q. Lin, O. Painter, R. G. Beausoleil, and A. E. Willner, “On-chip two-octave supercontinuum generation by enhancing self-steepening of optical pulses,” Opt. Express 19(12), 11584–11590 (2011). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
23.	R. Halir, Y. Okawachi, J. S. Levy, M. A. Foster, M. Lipson, and A. L. Gaeta, “Octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in CMOS-compatible silicon nitride waveguides,” in CLEO - Laser Applications to Photonic Applications 2011, paper PDPA6 (2011).
24.	Ö. Boyraz, P. Koonath, V. Raghunathan, and B. Jalali, “All optical switching and continuum generation in silicon waveguides,” Opt. Express 12(17), 4094–4102 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
25.	L. Yin, Q. Lin, and G. P. Agrawal, “Soliton fission and supercontinuum generation in silicon waveguides,” Opt. Lett. 32(4), 391–393 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
26.	I.-W. Hsieh, X. Chen, X. Liu, J. I. Dadap, N. C. Panoiu, C.-Y. Chou, F. Xia, W. M. Green, Y. A. Vlasov, and R. M. Osgood, “Supercontinuum generation in silicon photonic wires,” Opt. Express 15(23), 15242–15249 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
27.	B. Kuyken, X. Liu, R. M. Osgood, Y. A. Vlasov, R. Baets, G. Roelkens, and W. M. Green, “Generation of a telecom-to-mid-infrared spanning supercontinuum using silicon-on-insulator wire waveguides,” in CLEO - Laser Applications to Photonic Applications 2011, paper CTuS1 (2011).
28.	J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 78(4), 1135–1184 (2006). [CrossRef]
29.	D. V. Skryabin and A. V. Gorbach, “Colloquium: Looking at a soliton through the prism of optical supercontinuum,” Rev. Mod. Phys. 82(2), 1287–1299 (2010). [CrossRef]
30.	P. Koonath, D. R. Solli, and B. Jalali, “Limiting nature of continuum generation in silicon,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 93(9), 091114 (2008). [CrossRef]
31.	Q. Lin, “Generalized nonlinear envelope equation with high-order dispersion of nonlinearity” (to be published).
32.	G. Genty, P. Kinsler, B. Kibler, and J. M. Dudley, “Nonlinear envelope equation modeling of sub-cycle dynamics and harmonic generation in nonlinear waveguides,” Opt. Express 15(9), 5382–5387 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
33.	R. Sun, P. Dong, N.-N. Feng, C.-Y. Hong, J. Michel, M. Lipson, and L. Kimerling, “Horizontal single and multiple slot waveguides: optical transmission at λ = 1550 nm,” Opt. Express 15(26), 17967–17972 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
34.	A. D. Bristow, N. Rotenberg, and H. M. van Driel, “Two-photon absorption and Kerr coefficients of silicon for 850-2200 nm,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 90(19), 191104 (2007). [CrossRef]
35.	Q. Lin, J. Zhang, G. Piredda, R. W. Boyd, P. M. Fauchet, and G. P. Agrawal, “Dispersion of silicon nonlinearities in the near-infrared region,” Appl. Phys. Lett. 91(2), 021111 (2007). [CrossRef]
36.	S. Afshar V and T. M. Monro, “A full vectorial model for pulse propagation in emerging waveguides with subwavelength structures part I: Kerr nonlinearity,” Opt. Express 17(4), 2298–2318 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

OCIS Codes
(130.4310) Integrated optics : Nonlinear
(190.4390) Nonlinear optics : Nonlinear optics, integrated optics
(190.5530) Nonlinear optics : Pulse propagation and temporal solitons
(320.5520) Ultrafast optics : Pulse compression
(320.6629) Ultrafast optics : Supercontinuum generation

ToC Category:
Integrated Optics

History
Original Manuscript: November 3, 2011
Revised Manuscript: December 25, 2011
Manuscript Accepted: December 25, 2011
Published: January 11, 2012

Citation
Lin Zhang, Qiang Lin, Yang Yue, Yan Yan, Raymond G. Beausoleil, and Alan E. Willner, "Silicon waveguide with four zero-dispersion wavelengths and its application in on-chip octave-spanning supercontinuum generation," Opt. Express 20, 1685-1690 (2012)
http://www.opticsinfobase.org/oe/abstract.cfm?URI=oe-20-2-1685

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References

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Ö. Boyraz, P. Koonath, V. Raghunathan, and B. Jalali, “All optical switching and continuum generation in silicon waveguides,” Opt. Express12(17), 4094–4102 (2004). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
L. Yin, Q. Lin, and G. P. Agrawal, “Soliton fission and supercontinuum generation in silicon waveguides,” Opt. Lett.32(4), 391–393 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
I.-W. Hsieh, X. Chen, X. Liu, J. I. Dadap, N. C. Panoiu, C.-Y. Chou, F. Xia, W. M. Green, Y. A. Vlasov, and R. M. Osgood, “Supercontinuum generation in silicon photonic wires,” Opt. Express15(23), 15242–15249 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
B. Kuyken, X. Liu, R. M. Osgood, Y. A. Vlasov, R. Baets, G. Roelkens, and W. M. Green, “Generation of a telecom-to-mid-infrared spanning supercontinuum using silicon-on-insulator wire waveguides,” in CLEO - Laser Applications to Photonic Applications 2011, paper CTuS1 (2011).
J. M. Dudley, G. Genty, and S. Coen, “Supercontinuum generation in photonic crystal fiber,” Rev. Mod. Phys.78(4), 1135–1184 (2006). [CrossRef]
D. V. Skryabin and A. V. Gorbach, “Colloquium: Looking at a soliton through the prism of optical supercontinuum,” Rev. Mod. Phys.82(2), 1287–1299 (2010). [CrossRef]
P. Koonath, D. R. Solli, and B. Jalali, “Limiting nature of continuum generation in silicon,” Appl. Phys. Lett.93(9), 091114 (2008). [CrossRef]
Q. Lin, “Generalized nonlinear envelope equation with high-order dispersion of nonlinearity” (to be published).
G. Genty, P. Kinsler, B. Kibler, and J. M. Dudley, “Nonlinear envelope equation modeling of sub-cycle dynamics and harmonic generation in nonlinear waveguides,” Opt. Express15(9), 5382–5387 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
R. Sun, P. Dong, N.-N. Feng, C.-Y. Hong, J. Michel, M. Lipson, and L. Kimerling, “Horizontal single and multiple slot waveguides: optical transmission at λ = 1550 nm,” Opt. Express15(26), 17967–17972 (2007). [CrossRef] [PubMed]
A. D. Bristow, N. Rotenberg, and H. M. van Driel, “Two-photon absorption and Kerr coefficients of silicon for 850-2200 nm,” Appl. Phys. Lett.90(19), 191104 (2007). [CrossRef]
Q. Lin, J. Zhang, G. Piredda, R. W. Boyd, P. M. Fauchet, and G. P. Agrawal, “Dispersion of silicon nonlinearities in the near-infrared region,” Appl. Phys. Lett.91(2), 021111 (2007). [CrossRef]
S. Afshar V and T. M. Monro, “A full vectorial model for pulse propagation in emerging waveguides with subwavelength structures part I: Kerr nonlinearity,” Opt. Express17(4), 2298–2318 (2009). [CrossRef] [PubMed]

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