Continuous-wave Raman amplification in silicon core fibers pumped in the telecom band
Meng Huang,
Shiyu Sun,
Dong Wu,
Haonan Ren,
Li Shen,
Thomas W. Hawkins,
John Ballato,
Ursula J. Gibson,
Anna C. Peacock
Affiliations
Meng Huang
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Shiyu Sun
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Dong Wu
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Haonan Ren
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Li Shen
Wuhan National Laboratory for Optoelectronics and School of Optical and Electrical Information, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan 430074, China
Thomas W. Hawkins
Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA
John Ballato
Center for Optical Materials Science and Engineering Technologies and Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Clemson University, Clemson, South Carolina 29634, USA
Ursula J. Gibson
Department of Physics and Porelabs, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, N-7491 Trondheim, Norway
Anna C. Peacock
Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton, Southampton SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom
Stimulated Raman amplification is observed for the first time in the silicon core fiber (SCF) platform. The SCFs were tapered to obtain sub-micrometer core dimensions and low optical transmission losses, facilitating efficient spontaneous scattering and stimulated Raman amplification using a continuous-wave pump source with milliwatt power levels. A maximum on–off gain of 1.1 dB was recorded at a pump power of only 48 mW with our numerical simulations, indicating that gains up to 6dB are achievable by increasing the fiber length. This work shows that the SCF platform could open a route to producing compact and robust all-fiber integrated Raman amplifiers and lasers across a broad wavelength region.
