Silicon nanowire based radio-frequency spectrum analyzer

We demonstrate a terahertz bandwidth silicon nanowire based radio-frequency spectrum analyzer using cross-phase modulation. We show that the device provides accurate characterization of 640Gbaud on-off-keyed data stream and demonstrate its potential for optical time-division multiplexing optimization and optical performance monitoring of ultrahigh speed signals on a silicon chip. We analyze the impact of free carrier effects on our device, and find that the efficiency of the device is not reduced by two-photon or free-carrier absorption, nor its accuracy compromised by free-carrier cross-chirp. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America