Ciret Charles, Gorza Simon-Pierre, Husko Chad, Roelkens Gunther, Kuyken Bart, Leo François
OPERA-Photonique, Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), 50 av. F.D. Roosevelt, CP194/5, B-1050, Bruxelles, Belgium.
Laboratoire de Photonique d'Angers EA 4464, Université d'Angers, 2 Boulevard Lavoisier, 49000, Angers, France.
Sci Rep. 2018 Nov 21;8(1):17177. doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-34344-4.
Supercontinuum generation in Kerr media has become a staple of nonlinear optics. It has been celebrated for advancing the understanding of soliton propagation as well as its many applications in a broad range of fields. Coherent spectral broadening of laser light is now commonly performed in laboratories and used in commercial "white light" sources. The prospect of miniaturizing the technology is currently driving experiments in different integrated platforms such as semiconductor on insulator waveguides. Central to the spectral broadening is the concept of higher-order soliton fission. While widely accepted in silica fibers, the dynamics of soliton decay in semiconductor waveguides is yet poorly understood. In particular, the role of nonlinear loss and free carriers, absent in silica, remains an open question. Here, through experiments and simulations, we show that nonlinear loss is the dominant perturbation in wire waveguides, while free-carrier dispersion is dominant in photonic crystal waveguides.
克尔介质中的超连续谱产生已成为非线性光学的一个主要内容。它因推动了对孤子传播的理解以及在广泛领域的众多应用而备受赞誉。激光的相干光谱展宽如今在实验室中已很常见，并被用于商业“白光”光源。将该技术小型化的前景目前正在推动在诸如绝缘体上半导体波导等不同集成平台上进行实验。光谱展宽的核心是高阶孤子裂变的概念。虽然在石英光纤中已被广泛接受，但半导体波导中孤子衰变的动力学仍知之甚少。特别是，石英中不存在的非线性损耗和自由载流子的作用仍是一个悬而未决的问题。在这里，通过实验和模拟，我们表明非线性损耗是线波导中的主要微扰，而自由载流子色散在光子晶体波导中占主导地位。
