Tunable mid-infrared generation via wide-band four-wave mixing in silicon nitride waveguides

Published

August 27, 2018

Author(s)

Abijith S. Kowligy, Daniel D. Hickstein, Alexander Lind, David Carlson, Henry R. Timmers, Nima Nader, Daniel Maser, Daron Westly, Kartik Srinivasan, Scott Papp, Scott Diddams

Abstract

We demonstrate wide-band frequency down-conversion to the mid-infrared (MIR) using four-wave mixing (FWM) of near-infrared (NIR) femtosecond-duration pulses from an Er:fiber laser, corresponding to 100 THz spectral translation. Photonic-chip-based silicon nitride waveguides provide the FWM medium. Engineered dispersion in the nanophotonic geometry and the wide transparency range of silicon nitride enable large-detuning FWM phasematching and results in tunable MIR from 2.6 to 3.6 μm on a single chip with 100-pJ-scale pump-pulse energies. Additionally, we observe up to 25 dB broadband parametric gain for NIR pulses when the FWM process is operated in a frequency up-conversion configuration. Our results demonstrate how integrated photonic circuits pumped with fiber lasers could realize multiple nonlinear optical phenomena on the same chip and lead to engineered synthesis of broadband, tunable, and coherent light across the NIR and MIR wavelength bands.

Citation

Optics Letters

Pub Type

Journals

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DOI Link

Keywords

broadband frequency conversion, frequency combs, integrated nonlinear photonics, parametic amplification

Citation

Kowligy, A. , Hickstein, D. , Lind, A. , Carlson, D. , Timmers, H. , Nader, N. , Maser, D. , Westly, D. , Srinivasan, K. , Papp, S. and Diddams, S. (2018), Tunable mid-infrared generation via wide-band four-wave mixing in silicon nitride waveguides, Optics Letters, [online], https://doi.org/10.1364/OL.43.004220 (Accessed March 25, 2025)