Wafer-scale CMOS foundry silicon-on-insulator devices for integrated temporal pulse compression

Area of Science:

• Photonics and Optical Engineering
• Materials Science and Engineering

Background:

• Optical pulses are critical for data transmission, imaging, and scientific research.
• Achieving ultrashort optical pulses is key to enhancing resolution and data capacity.
• Integrated, CMOS-compatible pulse compression is needed for widespread adoption in silicon photonics.

Purpose of the Study:

• To experimentally demonstrate silicon-based optical pulse compression using CMOS foundry processes.
• To develop integrated photonic devices for temporal compression of optical pulses.
• To enable mass manufacturing and integration of pulse compression technology.

Main Methods:

• Utilized a two-stage approach involving self-phase modulation via Kerr nonlinearity in silicon.
• Employed Bragg soliton-effect temporal compression.
• Fabricated devices using a wafer-scale CMOS foundry process on silicon-on-insulator.

Main Results:

• Achieved temporal compression of optical pulses up to 3.6×.
• Demonstrated good agreement between experimental results and numerical calculations.
• Successfully realized efficient silicon-on-insulator devices for temporal compression.

Conclusions:

• Silicon-based pulse compression is feasible using standard CMOS foundry processes.
• The developed devices can be mass-manufactured and integrated with other photonic and electronic circuits.
• This work paves the way for advanced applications requiring ultrashort optical pulses.