Ultrabroadband supercontinuum generation in a CMOS-compatible platform

We demonstrate supercontinuum generation spanning 1.6 octaves in silicon nitride waveguides. Using a 4.3 cm-long waveguide, with an effective nonlinearity of gamma = 1.2 W-1 m(-1), we generate a spectrum extending from 665 nm to 2025 nm (at -30 dB) with 160 pJ pulses. Our results offer potential for a robust, integrated, and low-cost supercontinuum source for applications including frequency metrology, optical coherence tomography, confocal microscopy, and optical communications. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America