In 1998, Bender and Boettcher found that a wide class of Hamiltonians, even though non-Hermitian, can still exhibit entirely real spectra provided that they obey parity-time requirements or PT symmetry. Here we demonstrate experimentally passive PT-symmetry breaking within the realm of optics. This phase transition leads to a loss induced optical transparency in specially designed pseudo-Hermitian guiding potentials.

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Photonic integrated circuits (PICs) are a key component [1] for future telecommunication networks, where demands for greater bandwidth, network flexibility, low energy consumption and cost must all be met. The quest for alloptical components has naturally targeted materials with extremely large nonlinearity, including chalcogenide glasses (ChG) [2] and semiconductors, such as silicon [3] and AlGaAs [4]. Yet issues such as immature fabrication technologies for ChG, and high linear and nonlinear losses for semiconductors, motivate the search for other materials. Here we present the first demonstration of nonlinear optics in integrated silica based glass waveguides using continuous wave (CW) light. We demonstrate four wave mixing (FWM), with low (7mW) CW pump power at λ=1550nm, in high index doped silica glass ring resonators capable of performing in photonic telecommunications networks as linear filters [5]. The high reliability, design flexibility, and manufacturability of our device raises the possibility of a new platform for future low-cost nonlinear all-optical PICs.

Self-locked optical parametric oscillation in a CMOS compatible microring resonator: a route to robust optical frequency comb generation on a chip Article (Published Version) http://sro.sussex.ac.uk Pasquazi, Alessia, Caspani, Lucia, Peccianti, Marco, Clerici, Matteo, Ferrera, Marcello, Razzari, Luca, Duchesne, David, Little, Brent E, Chu, Sai T, Moss, David J and Morandotti, Roberto (2013) Self-locked optical parametric oscillation in a CMOS compatible microring resonator: a route to robust optical frequency comb generation on a chip. Optics express, 21 (11). pp. 13333-13341. ISSN 1094-4087 This version is available from Sussex Research Online: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/49347/ This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies and may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the URL above for details on accessing the published version. Copyright and reuse:Sussex Research Online is a digital repository of the research output of the University.Copyright and all moral rights to the version of the paper presented here belong to the individual author(s) and/or other copyright owners. To the extent reasonable and practicable, the material made available in SRO has been checked for eligibility before being made available.Copies of full text items generally can be reproduced, displayed or performed and given to third parties in any format or medium for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge, provided that the authors, title and full bibliographic details are credited, a hyperlink and/or URL is given for the original metadata page and the content is not changed in any way. Abstract: We report a novel geometry for OPOs based on nonlinear microcavity resonators. This approach relies on a self-locked scheme that enables OPO emission without the need for thermal locking of the pump laser to the microcavity resonance. By exploiting a CMOS-compatible microring resonator, we achieve oscillation featured by a complete absence of "shutting down", i.e. the self-terminating behavior that is a very common and detrimental occurrence in externally pumped OPOs. Further, our scheme consistently produces very wide bandwidth (>300nm, limited by our experimental set-up) combs that oscillate at a spacing equal to the FSR of the micro cavity resonance. Self-locked optical parametric oscillation in a CMOS

We demonstrate supercontinuum (SC) generation at both 1550 nm and 1288 nm in a compact (< 5mm(2)) 45 cm spiral waveguide composed of CMOS-compatible doped high-index glass. While both wavelengths have weak dispersion and are near zero dispersion points, they present different symmetries. At 1550 nm, the normal dispersion regime takes place at longer wavelengths, whereas at 1290 nm it is at shorter wavelengths, and we observe features in the SC spectra that clearly reflect this. In particular, the spectrum at 1550 nm is more than 300 nm wide (limited by detection) and is well reproduced by simulations based on the measured dispersion. This work represents a practical on-chip broadband wavelength source with potential use in many important applications.