Hybrid‐Mode‐Family Kerr Optical Parametric Oscillation for Robust Coherent Light Generation on Chip

Abstract

Optical parametric oscillation (OPO) using the third‐order nonlinearity (χ(3)$\chi ^{(3)}$) in integrated photonics platforms is an emerging approach for coherent light generation, and has shown great promise in achieving broad spectral coverage with small device footprints and at low pump powers. However, current χ(3)$\chi ^{(3)}$ nanophotonic OPO devices use pump, signal, and idler modes of the same transverse spatial mode family. As a result, such single‐mode‐family OPO (sOPO) is inherently sensitive in dispersion and can be challenging to scalably fabricate and implement. In this work, a novel scheme is proposed using different families of transverse spatial modes for pump, signal, and idler, which is termed as hybrid‐mode‐family OPO (hOPO). The hOPO shows unprecedented robustness in dispersion versus device geometry, pump frequency, and temperature. Moreover, the hOPO is capable of generating a few milliwatts of output signal power with a conversion efficiency of ≈$\approx$8%$\%$ and without competitive processes. This hOPO scheme is an important counterpoint to the existing sOPO approach, and is particularly promising as a robust method to generate coherent on‐chip visible and infrared light sources.

High-performance Kerr microresonator optical parametric oscillator on a silicon chip

“…Furthermore, while Fig. 5 contextualizes the output power and conversion efficiency of our passively cooled device, other investigations 12,14 have noted that supplementing similar χ (3) OPO systems with active thermal tuning can aid in aligning the OPO output wavelengths to an externally defined target wavelength. Given recent advancements 18 in high-efficiency thermal tuning solutions for on-chip nonlinear nanophotonics devices, we expect thermal control of the refractive index to further strengthen the suite of features afforded by high performance OPO.…”

“…In considering the potential applications and future development of the OPO devices we describe in this work, it is useful to place their performance in context with other demonstrated OPO systems 9,12,14,[17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33] . Figure 5 illustrates the output power for various OPO demonstrations, ranging from chip-integrated technologies to mmscale resonators to larger table-top technologies, as a function of their input power.…”

“…We emphasize that while integrated microresonator OPOs have realized high efficiency previously, it has largely been in a regime of low output powers (≈100 μW), with the exceptions of refs. 14,19 , where a few mW of signal and idler power were generated from a 780 nm band pump, but the signal-idler separation was limited to a few tens of THz. Our work realizes output powers exceeding 20 mW at a signal-idler separation greater than 150 THz, while operating with pump powers that are still accessible from compact laser sources.…”

“…This problem is circumvented though the use of hybrid-mode OPO (hOPO) 14 , which phase and frequency matches azimuthal modes from different transverse spatial mode families (Fig. 1 (b)).…”

The Kurtz–Perry Powder Technique Revisited: A Study of the Effect of Reference Selection on Powder Second-Harmonic Generation Response

“…As the core component of all solid-state lasers, nonlinear optical (NLO) crystals can obtain the desired laser frequency by using NLO technologies such as sum frequency generation (SFG), difference frequency generation (DFG), and optical parametric oscillation (OPO) [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 ]. At present, NLO materials have been widely used in military and civil fields, including the development of laser radar, laser ranging, environmental monitoring, medical treatment, medical diagnosis, etc.…”