Conditions for Parametric and Free-Carrier Oscillation in Silicon Ring Cavities

Ryan Hamerly, Dodd Gray, Christopher Rogers, Kambiz Jamshidi
2018 Journal of Lightwave Technology  
We model optical parametric oscillation in ring cavities with two-photon absorption, focusing on silicon at 1.55μm. Oscillation is possible if free-carrier absorption can be mitigated; this can be achieved using carrier sweep-out in a reverse-biased p-i-n junction to reduce the carrier lifetime. By varying the pump power, detuning, and reverse-bias voltage, it is possible to generate frequency combs in cavities with both normal and anomalous dispersion at a wide range of wavelengths including
more » ... 55μm. Furthermore, a free-carrier self-pulsing instability leads to rich dynamics when the carrier lifetime is sufficiently long.
doi:10.1109/jlt.2018.2833054 fatcat:uk2ydz7tanhxtkhfz3qdwl6hdq