Pushing the limits of CMOS optical parametric amplifiers with USRN:Si7N3 above the two-photon absorption edge

CMOS platforms operating at the telecommunications wavelength either reside within the highly dissipative two-photon regime in silicon-based optical devices, or possess small nonlinearities. Bandgap engineering of non-stoichiometric silicon nitride using state-of-the-art fabrication techniques has led to our development of USRN (ultra-silicon-rich nitride) in the form of Si[subscript 7]N[subscript 3], that possesses a high Kerr nonlinearity (2.8 × 10[superscript −13] cm[superscript 2] W[superscript −1]), an order of magnitude larger than that in stoichiometric silicon nitride. Here we experimentally demonstrate high-gain optical parametric amplification using USRN, which is compositionally tailored such that the 1,550 nm wavelength resides above the two-photon absorption edge, while still possessing large nonlinearities. Optical parametric gain of 42.5 dB, as well as cascaded four-wave mixing with gain down to the third idler is observed and attributed to the high photon efficiency achieved through operating above the two-photon absorption edge, representing one of the largest optical parametric gains to date on a CMOS platform.

Singapore Ministry of Education. Academic Research Fund (AcRF) Tier 2 grant

Singapore. Agency for Science, Technology and Research (PSF grant)

SUTD-MIT International Design Centre (IDC)

Temasek Laboratories

National Research Foundation of Singapore (Medium Sized Centre Program)