Nonlinear propagation of ultrafast 1.5 μm pulses in high-index-contrast silicon-on-insulator waveguides
- 4 February 2004
- journal article
- research article
- Published by AIP Publishing in Applied Physics Letters
- Vol. 84 (6), 900-902
- https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1645991
Abstract
Propagation through silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide structures of 1.53 μm, 100 fs laser pulses with peak powers up to 400 W is studied experimentally and theoretically. The dominant nonlinear effects are two-photon absorption and self-phase modulation. The two-photon absorption coefficient and the nonlinear refractive index of Si obtained in this work are β 2 =0.9 cm/GW and n 2 =0.7×10 −13 cm 2 / W , respectively. At high intensities, free carriers generated by two-photon absorption are demonstrated to have a significant influence on pulse spectra and transmitted power. The figure of merit for all-optical switching obtained in this work (T=1.8) indicates that a switch based on a SOI waveguide structure might be possible at 1.55 μm.Keywords
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