Nanophotonics (Aug 2021)

An optical parametric Bragg amplifier on a CMOS chip

  • Choi Ju Won,
  • Sohn Byoung-Uk,
  • Sahin Ezgi,
  • Chen George F. R.,
  • Xing Peng,
  • Ng Doris K. T.,
  • Eggleton Benjamin J.,
  • Tan Dawn T. H.

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1515/nanoph-2021-0302
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 10, no. 13
pp. 3507 – 3518

Abstract

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We demonstrate a complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible optical parametric Bragg amplifier on an ultra-silicon-rich nitride chip. The amplifier design incorporates advantageous group index properties in a nonlinear Bragg grating to circumvent phase matching limitations arising from the bulk material and waveguide dispersion. The grating structure further augments the effective nonlinear parameter of 800 W−1/m, considerably lowering the power required for the observation of strong parametric gain. On/off optical parametric gain of 20 dB is achieved using a low peak power of 1.6 W, in good agreement with numerical calculations. This represents a 7 dB improvement in the parametric gain compared to the absence of grating enhancement which is attributed to the Bragg grating induced superior phase matching.

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