High efficiency and ultra broadband optical parametric four-wave mixing in chalcogenide-PMMA hybrid microwires

Abstract

Abstract:We present polymer (PMMA) cladded chalcogenide (As 2 Se 3 ) hybrid microwires that realize optical parametric four-wave mixing (FWM) with wavelength conversion bandwidth as broad as 190 nm and efficiency as high as 21 dB at peak input power levels as low as 70 mW. This represents 3-30 x increase in bandwidth and 30-50 dB improvement in conversion efficiency over previous demonstrations in tapered and microstructured chalcogenide fibers with the results agreeing well with the simulations. These properties, combined with small foot-print (10 cm length), low loss (<4 dB), ease of fabrication, and the transparency of As 2 Se 3 from near-to-mid-infrared regions make this device a promising building block for lasers, optical instrumentation and optical communication devices.References and links

Mid-infrared continuous-wave parametric amplification in chalcogenide microstructured fibers

“…Currently, platforms with the highest γ, such as silicon or As 2 S 3 waveguides and chalcogenide step index tapers, exhibit high propagation losses. They are due to either sidewall scattering/surface smoothness and multiphonon absorption [1,12] or absorption in the polymer coating [14,19], significantly impacting their FOM. Soft glass suspended core fibers (SCFs) with low loss have been fabricated in recent years [16,20,21].…”

“…However, the high core/cladding index contrast forces the fiber core to be tapered to a submicrometer diameter for single-mode pumping [23]. Nanowires are therefore coated with polymers to both give the necessary mechanical strength to the taper and compensate for the strong material dispersion [14,19], resulting in extremely high losses limiting the waveguide's effective length. Once again, only low-duty-cycle/high-peak-power pulsed sources were able to achieve amplification in this platform.…”

Nonlinear properties of AlGaAs waveguides in continuous wave operation regime

“…It can be noticed that the values of η 1 and η 2 obtained in this work for the 0.6 μm wide waveguide is considerably higher than the data reported in the literature for other AlGaAs waveguides. Chalcogenide nanowires provide a much better value of η 1 [21] but, as expected, the value of η 2 highlights that these waveguides are not suitable for integration in miniaturized optical circuits. Moreover, it is worth noting that similar efficiency values have been previously obtained in resonant structures such as photonic-crystal GaInP waveguides [22], which are inherently narrow-band devices or in Si-based slot-waveguides [20].…”

Far-detuned mid-infrared frequency conversion via normal dispersion modulation instability in chalcogenide microwires

“…In this Letter, we show that the same process of broadband frequency conversion due to normal dispersion MI can also be observed in specially tapered highly nonlinear hybrid As2Se3 polymer tapered microwires [16][17][18][19][20] where the dispersion profile allows phasematched frequency conversion via fourth order dispersion. Our results show fardetuned parametric frequency conversion at 2 µm and 3.5 µm by pumping the chalcogenide microwire in the normal dispersion regime at 2.62 µm.…”