Mid-infrared soliton and Raman frequency comb generation in silicon microrings

We numerically study the mechanisms of frequency comb generation in the mid-infrared spectral region from cw-pumped silicon microring resonators. Coherent soliton comb generation may be obtained even for a pump with zero linear cavity detuning, through suitable control of the effective lifetime of free carriers from multiphoton absorption, which introduces a nonlinear cavity detuning via free-carrier dispersion. Conditions for optimal octave spanning Raman comb generation are also described. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America