An octave-spanning mid-infrared frequency comb generated in a silicon nanophotonic wire waveguide

Kuyken, Bart; Ideguchi, Takuro; Holzner, Simon; Yan, Ming; Hänsch, Theodor W.; Campenhout, Joris van; Verheyen, Peter; Coen, Stéphane; Leo, Francois; Baets, Roel; Roelkens, Gunther und Picqué, Nathalie (2015): An octave-spanning mid-infrared frequency comb generated in a silicon nanophotonic wire waveguide. In: Nature Communications, Vol. 6, 6310

Abstract

Laser frequency combs, sources with a spectrum consisting of hundred thousands evenly spaced narrow lines, have an exhilarating potential for new approaches to molecular spectroscopy and sensing in the mid-infrared region. The generation of such broadband coherent sources is presently under active exploration. Technical challenges have slowed down such developments. Identifying a versatile highly nonlinear medium for significantly broadening a mid-infrared comb spectrum remains challenging. Here we take a different approach to spectral broadening of mid-infrared frequency combs and investigate CMOS-compatible highly nonlinear dispersion-engineered silicon nanophotonic waveguides on a silicon-on-insulator chip. We record octave-spanning (1, 500-3, 300 nm) spectra with a coupled input pulse energy as low as 16 pJ. We demonstrate phase-coherent comb spectra broadened on a room-temperature-operating CMOS-compatible chip.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Faculties: Physics
• Subjects: 500 Science > 530 Physics
• ISSN: 2041-1723
• Language: English