Bistability and self-pulsation phenomena in silicon microring resonators based on nonlinear optical effects

Bistability (BS) and self-pulsation (SP) phenomena in silicon microring resonators (MRR) with intense CW light injection are studied. Several nonlinear optical effects including Kerr effect, two-photon absorption, free carrier absorption and free carrier dispersion are taken into account. The threshold optical intensity of BS and SP is derived from the coupled mode theory and a linear stability analysis method. The influences of MRR's parameters (carrier lifetime, linear loss and radius) and light injection conditions (input power, wavelength detuning) on the characteristics of SP (modulation depth and oscillating frequency) are analyzed and discussed. It is shown that, SP occurs only if the carrier lifetime ranges from several ps to several-hundred ps and the input light intensity is higher than 10(6)W/cm(2). The modulation depth of SP can be as large as 8dB and the associated oscillating frequency is in the range from several GHz to beyond 10 GHz. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America