UWB monocycle pulse generation using two-photon absorption in a silicon waveguide

We propose and experimentally demonstrate ultrawideband monocycle pulse generation using nondegenerate two-photon absorption in a silicon waveguide. The free-carrier absorption induced pulse tail at the rising edge of inverted probe pulse is largely compensated by the overlapped pump pulse and results in a symmetric negative monocycle pulse. A 143 ps Gaussian monocycle pulse is successfully obtained with a 131.7% fractional 10 dB bandwidth using a 68 ps pulsed pump. The 10 dB bandwidth and center frequency of the RF spectrum for the generated monocycle pulse can be largely tuned using an optical delay line. An operational bandwidth of 30 nm is demonstrated experimentally with stable performance, and larger optical bandwidth is expected. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America