Mid-Infrared Highly Efficient, Broadband, and Flattened Dispersive Wave Generation via Dual-Coupled Thin-Film Lithium-Niobate-on-Insulator Waveguide

We designed a structure of dual-coupled ridge waveguide in thin-film lithium-niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) and numerically studied the highly efficient, broadband, and flattened dispersive wave-enhanced supercontinuum generation in the mid-infrared region. By leveraging the mode coupling of the proposed dual-coupled waveguide structure, one of the supermodes, namely the anti-symmetric mode, can produce additional zero-dispersion wavelengths in the mid-infrared region, and consequently multiple normal dispersion regions for dispersive wave emission. Given the rich geometrical degrees of freedom powered by this dual-coupled LNOI waveguide structure, we can tailor the dispersion profile so that a well-established mode-locked fiber laser in the telecommunication band can serve as the pump. Thus, the whole system can potentially be fiberto-chip integrated and packaged, enabling a compact, cost-effective, and low system-complexity platform. We numerically show that the broadband dispersive wave covering the wavelength range of 1.92 similar to 3.55 mu m (-20 dB level, near octave-spanning) with spectral flatness of 6.31 dB can be achieved using a 1550 nm, 190 pJ femtosecond pump seed. When the dual hump-shaped spectrum is obtained, the conversion efficiency of the mid-infrared dispersive wave can be up to 19.31%. The influence of the pumping conditions on the performance of mid-infrared dispersive wave generation was also studied. This work provides a competitive candidate for efficient, broadband, and flattened mid-infrared spectrum generation, which can find important applications in spectroscopy, metrology, and communication.

Automated summary

We propose and numerically study a dual-coupled ridge waveguide structure in thin-film lithium-niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) for highly efficient, broadband, and flattened dispersive wave-enhanced supercontinuum generation in the mid-infrared region. By tailoring the dispersion profile using the proposed structure, the supercontinuum generation can be pumped by a mode-locked fiber laser in the telecommunication band. Numerical simulations show that a broadband dispersive wave covering the wavelength range of 1.92 to 3.55 μm with good spectral flatness can be achieved. This work provides a competitive candidate for efficient, broadband, and flattened mid-infrared spectrum generation with important applications in spectroscopy, metrology, and communication.