On-chip two-octave supercontinuum generation by enhancing self-steepening of optical pulses
Abstract
Dramatic advances in supercontinuum generation have been made recently using photonic crystal fibers, but it is quite challenging to obtain an octave-spanning supercontinuum on a chip, partially because of strong dispersion in high-index-contrast nonlinear integrated waveguides. We show by simulation that extremely flat and low dispersion can be achieved in silicon nitride slot waveguides over a wavelength band of 500 nm. Different from previously reported supercontinua that were generated either by higher-order soliton fission in anomalous dispersion regime or by self phase modulation in normal dispersion regime, a two-octave supercontinuum from 630 to 2650 nm (360 THz in total) can be generated by greatly enhancing self-steepening in nonlinear pulse propagation in almost zero dispersion regime, when an optical shock as short as 3 fs is formed, which enables on-chip ultra-wide-band applications.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1104.2954,
title = {On-chip two-octave supercontinuum generation by enhancing self-steepening of optical pulses},
author = {Lin Zhang and Yan Yan and Yang Yue and Qiang Lin and Oskar Painter and Raymond G. Beausoleil and Alan E. Willner},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1104.2954},
year = {2014}
}