The impact of nonlinear losses in the silicon micro-ring cavities on CW pumping correlated photon pair generation

In this paper, 1.5 mu m correlated photon pairs are generated under continuous wave (CW) pumping in a silicon micro-ring cavity with a Q factor of 8.1 x 10(4). The ratio of coincidences to accidental coincidences (CAR) is up to 200 under a coincidence time bin width of 5ns. The experiment result of single side photon count shows that the generation rate does not increase as the square of the pump level due to the nonlinear losses in the cavity which reduce the Q factor and impact the field enhancement effect in the cavity under high pump level. Theoretical analysis shows that the photon pair generation rate in the cavity is proportional to the seventh power of the Q factor, which agrees well with the experiment result. It provides a way to analyze the performance of CW pumping correlated photon pair generation in silicon micro-ring cavities under high pump levels. (C)2014 Optical Society of America