Fiberised silicon photonics for infrared nonlinear photonics

Abstract

Silicon photonics is fast becoming one of the most active research areas. Within this field, silicon waveguides have gained significant attention for their tight light confinement, which makes them well suited for nonlinear applications. In recent years, silicon core optical fibres have emerged as a new platform for nonlinear optics. The motivation of this project is to characterise the nonlinear properties of the silicon core fibres and build novel nonlinear photonic devices. In this work, firstly, a tapering process is introduced to reduce the core sizes of the silicon core fibres down to sizes required for nonlinear applications. The tapers are studied numerically and the linear optical transmission properties characterised experimentally. Then, the optical nonlinear properties, such as the nonlinear Kerr coefficient and two-photon absorption parameter of these fibres are characterised by fitting experimental data of high-power pulse propagation with numerical simulations of the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. These characterisations cover wavelengths from telecom band to short wave infrared regime. Secondly, supercontinuum generation is demonstrated experimentally in various silicon core fibres with different taper profiles. The process of the supercontinuum is also studied numerically to understand the pulse dynamics. The results are analysed with respect to the power efficiency and coherence properties. Thirdly, an inverse taper structure is demonstrated as a novel approach for integrating the silicon core fibres with conventional silica fibre systems. The fabrication process of the integration technique is fully documented. The coupling efficiency of the device is characterised using a combination of experiments and finite element numerical studies. These studies will pave the way for future all-fibre nonlinear silicon photonic systems.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Anna Peacock: orcid.org/0000-0002-1940-7172

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