On-chip octave-spanning supercontinuum generation in hybrid slot waveguide by power-efficient dual pump

We propose an on-chip cascaded structure consisting of a microresonator and a slot waveguide to generate the high-performance supercontinuum harnessing the dual pump scenario. Utilizing a single CW pump with the power of only 0.1 W, the dissipative Kerr soliton with the full width at half maximum of 69.2 fs and the peak power of 103.3 W is generated and couples out the microresonator together with the CW pump to serve as a dual pump seed for the supercontinuum generation in the followed slot waveguide. The slot waveguide built upon a silicon-organic hybrid structure is carefully designed to possess remarkable nonlinearity and appropriate dispersion profile for smooth and broadband supercontinuum generation. We have numerically achieved the 1.56 octave-spanning supercontinuum spanning 1 similar to 3 mu m with the proposed dual pump scenario. The supercontinuum generated by the dual pump scenario shows flattened, broadband, and quasi-right-angled-trapezoid shape, along with good coherence. Compared with the single pump scenario of CW or soliton pulse only, the supercontinuum generated by the dual pump scenario possesses the much stronger spectrum, broader spanning, and medium coherence. Our work opens up a new path for on-chip and cost-effective supercontinuum generation with the high performance of intensity, bandwidth, and coherence.

Automated summary

A novel on-chip cascaded structure utilizing a microresonator and a slot waveguide for dual pump supercontinuum generation is proposed. By employing a low-power single continuous wave pump, dissipative Kerr soliton is successfully generated and serves as a dual pump seed for supercontinuum generation in the following slot waveguide. Numerical simulations have demonstrated the generation of 1.56 octave-spanning supercontinuum within the wavelength range of 1 to 3 μm.