APL Photonics (Jan 2021)

Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in a low-loss germanium-on-silicon waveguide

  • Alberto Della Torre,
  • Milan Sinobad,
  • Remi Armand,
  • Barry Luther-Davies,
  • Pan Ma,
  • Stephen Madden,
  • Arnan Mitchell,
  • David J. Moss,
  • Jean-Michel Hartmann,
  • Vincent Reboud,
  • Jean-Marc Fedeli,
  • Christelle Monat,
  • Christian Grillet

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0033070
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 6, no. 1
pp. 016102 – 016102-7

Abstract

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We experimentally demonstrate supercontinuum (SC) generation in a germanium-on-silicon waveguide. This waveguide exhibits propagation loss between 1.2 dB/cm and 1.35 dB/cm in the 3.6 µm–4.5 µm spectral region for both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. By pumping the waveguide with ∼200 fs pulses at 4.6 µm wavelength, we generate a mid-infrared (IR) SC spanning nearly an octave from 3.39 µm to 6.02 µm at the −40 dB level. Through numerical analysis of the evolution of the SC, we attribute the current limit to further extension into the mid-IR mainly to free-carrier absorption.