4H-SiC microring resonators for nonlinear integrated photonics

We demonstrate enhanced four-wave mixing (FWM) high-quality factor, high-confinement 4H-SiC microring resonators via continuous-wave FWM. With the large power buildup effect of the microring resonator, -21.7 dB FWM conversion efficiency is achieved with 79 mW pump power. Thanks to the strong light confinement in SiG-on-insulator (SiCOI) waveguides with submicrometer cross-sectional dimensions, a high nonlinear parameter w gamma of 7.4 +/- 0.9 W-1 m(-1) is obtained, from which the nonlinear refractive index (n(2)) of 4H-SiC is estimated to be (6.0 +/- 0.6) x 10(-19) m(2)/W at the telecom wavelengths. Besides, we are able to engineer the dispersion of a SiCOI waveguide to achieve 3 dB FWM conversion bandwidth of more than 130 nm. This work represents a step toward enabling all-optical signal processing functionalities using highly nonlinear SiCOI waveguides. (C) 2019 Optical Society of America