High spectro-temporal compression on a nonlinear CMOS-chip.

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Engineering
• Materials Science
• Semiconductor Device Physics

Background:

• Optical pulses are defined by temporal and spectral properties, crucial for applications like metrology and communications.
• Controlling these properties is key to advancing optical technologies.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate significant temporal and spectral compression of optical pulses on a chip.
• To explore the use of ultra-silicon-rich nitride for enhanced nonlinear optical effects.

Main Methods:

• Achieved 11x temporal compression of 5.8 ps pulses to 0.55 ps using low power (13.3 W) on a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) chip.
• Demonstrated 3.0x spectral compression of 480 fs pulses while preserving pulse energy.
• Utilized advanced on-chip device design with ultra-silicon-rich nitride waveguides.

Main Results:

• The temporal compression resulted in a 9.4x increase in pulse peak power.
• This represents the strongest temporal compression achieved on a CMOS chip to date.
• The ultra-silicon-rich nitride exhibited a 500x larger nonlinear parameter than stoichiometric silicon nitride and no two-photon absorption.

Conclusions:

• The study introduces a new paradigm for spectro-temporal compression of optical pulses.
• The demonstrated on-chip capabilities pave the way for turn-key, integrated systems for all-optical pulse control.
• This advancement is critical for future high-speed optical communications and advanced metrology.