Abstract

In the last years great efforts led to a strong miniaturization of optical components, as several devices were realized on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, which is compatible to CMOS technology. For many applications active devices exhibiting a nonlinear optical behavior are needed. Although Si shows large n₂-values (n₂ = 6 · 10⁻¹⁸m²/W [1], approx. 100 times stronger than SiO₂ [2]) it suffers from strong two photon absorption (β = 6.7 · 10⁻¹² m/W [2]), leading to a small figure of merit (FOM_Si = n₂/λβ ≈ 0.6 at λ = 1550 nm). Generally a FOM > 1 is necessary for efficient nonlinear optical processes [3]. One way to enhance the performance of SOI based devices is to combine Si with a material showing a higher FOM such as organic materials [4], chalcogenide glasses, e.g. As₂S₃[5] or silicon nano crystals [6]. For nonlinear optical frequency transformation (e.g. second harmonic generation, four wave mixing) the phase matching is crucial, as well. Controlling the waveguide dispersion is, therefore, essential in designing devices using these processes.

© 2013 IEEE