Solitons and spectral broadening in long siliconon-insulator photonic wires

W. Ding, C. Benton, A. V. Gorbach, W. J. Wadsworth, J. C. Knight, D. V. Skryabin,

M. Gnan, M. Sorrel, and R. M. De La Rue
Centre for Photonics and Photonic Materials, Department of Physics, University of Bath, Bath, BA2 7AY, United
Kingdom
[email protected]
Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8LT, United Kingdom
EnDIF-MIST.E-R Laboratory, University of Ferrara, I 44100 Ferrara, Italy
Department of Electronics and Electrical Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, G12 8LT, United Kingdom

Abstract: We report measurements and numerical modeling of spectral

broadening and soliton propagation regimes in silicon-on-insulator photonic
wire waveguides of 3 to 4 dispersion lengths using 100fs pump pulses. We
also present accurate measurements of the group index and dispersion of
the photonic wire.
2008 Optical Society of America
OCIS codes: (190.5530) Pulse propagation and solitons.

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17.

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1. Introduction
Over the last few years, the drive to build integrated all-optical circuits on tiny chips has
drawn attention to the problem of light propagation in single-mode silicon-on-insulator (SOI)
photonic wire waveguides [1-4,16,17]. The nonlinear response of these waveguides is high as
a result of the large nonlinear refractive index of silicon and is further enhanced by the very
strong confinement possible in silicon waveguides with sub-wavelength dimensions. A large
nonlinear response will be vital for applications such as switching, frequency conversion and
parametric amplification which are currently the subjects of intense exploration in SOI
waveguides [1,2,5-12,16,17]. For waveguides with widths around 500nm and thicknesses of
200nm or 300nm, the group velocity dispersion (GVD) at 1.5m wavelength is strongly
anomalous because of the large waveguide dispersion [8,13,14]. Anomalous GVD combined
with a strong focusing nonlinearity suggests that soliton dynamics will dominate the
propagation of femtosecond pulses in long silicon photonic wires [4,5]. The effects of selfphase modulation, modulational instability and soliton formation, which in optical fibers are
usually observed on length scales from tens of centimeters to hundreds of meters, can be
expected after just a few millimeters of propagation in such extreme waveguiding
environments [1,6,7,8,9,16,17]. Though nonlinear effects in silicon wires are influenced by
strong two-photon absorption (TPA), many of the recent results are very encouraging.
Previously, soliton features have been reported from 5mm long waveguides, corresponding to
about one dispersion length of the 120fs pump pulses used [4]. Here we report femtosecond
pulse propagation in an SOI photonic wire waveguide that has been specifically designed to
span several dispersion lengths, so that one can more convincingly make the case that solitons
have formed. Critically, we also present accurate measurements of the group index of the
waveguide as a function of wavelength. The dispersion coefficients (up to the third order)
derived from these measurements are used for our numerical modeling and for interpretation
of the observed nonlinear output spectra.
2. Linear properties of the nanowires
Our photonic wire waveguide was fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer consisting
of a 260nm thick, lightly p-doped silicon guiding layer on top of a 1m thick silicon oxide
layer, on a silicon substrate. The waveguide was patterned along the [110] crystallographic
direction on the (100) wafer surface using electron beam lithography and inductively coupled
plasma reactive ion etching. The top silicon layer was completely etched through, so that the
rectangular waveguide cross sections were surrounded by air on both sides and by a residual
~100nm thick HSQ resist layer on the top, which was deposited before the etching process
and acted as a hard mask. In order to improve the input/output coupling efficiency of the
480nm wide and 14.8mm long single-mode section of the waveguide, we fabricated short
tapered sections expanding to 2.1 m wide multimode waveguides at the edges of the chip
(see Fig. 1). Untapered multimode waveguides of these dimensions were also fabricated on
the same chip. Linear losses in the photonic wire waveguides were estimated to be dB = -3.4
dB/cm. In separate work, we have recently produced similar waveguide structures with
propagation losses below 1 dB/cm [15].
Spectral group index measurements were carried out using a free-space Mach-Zehnder
interferometer. An optical supercontinuum generated using a Q-switched microchip laser
(1064nm) and a piece of photonic crystal fiber was used as a broadband light source.
Wavelengths below 1220 nm were removed using a long-pass filter to avoid thermal effects
and optical damage to the waveguide under study. The waveguide was placed in one arm of
the interferometer. The delay of the reference arm could be scanned using a motorized control

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stage. The signal arm had an average power of 1mW, a repetition rate of 7 kHz, and a pulse
length of 1ns. Using the estimated coupling coefficient in the interferometer (~ -30dB), the
peak power inside the waveguide was far too low to cause significant nonlinear response. At
the output, the signal and reference beams were combined and passed through a band-pass
filter, and then coupled into a single-mode collecting fiber. Interferograms were recorded
using a lock-in amplifier. Fringe packets for the TE and TM modes were easily resolved. We
also recorded the position of the fringes without the waveguide in the sample arm, to
determine the actual values of the waveguide group indices. Coupled with our long
waveguide length this method offers improved accuracy over previously reported
measurements [13,14].

Fig. 1. (a) Schematics of the multi-mode and single-mode silicon-on-insulator waveguides. (b)
& (c) Scanning electron micrographs of the single-mode SOI waveguide taken at the end (b)
and in the middle (c) of the guide.

Fig. 2. (a) Group index of the single-mode (solid squares) and multi-mode (open squares) SOI
waveguides in the TE mode as a function of frequency. The colored lines (black, red and
green) are the 3rd, 4th, and 5th order polynomial fits respectively. (b) Derived 2nd- and 3rd- order
dispersion coefficients vs. frequency.

Taking account of various sources of error and uncertainty in our measurements we have
established an uncertainty in our value of group index of 0.037. Most of this error is

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independent of wavelength, and the wavelength-dependent uncertainty of our group index

measurements (which is the only part which impacts on our GVD estimates) is below 0.001.
Figure 2(a) shows the group indices of the multi-mode (open squares) and single-mode
(filled squares) SOI waveguides in the TE polarization state across the wavelength region
from 1.24 to 1.64m. The data have been processed to remove the effects of the multimode
input and output and the tapers by assuming that in the multimode region only the
fundamental TE mode is excited, and by using the known lengths (Fig. 1(a)) of the different
sections together with the measured group index curves. The effect of the strong waveguide
dispersion on the group index and its slope when the size of the waveguide is decreased is
very apparent. The results presented are those derived from the measured data for the 480 nm
x 260 nm cross-section waveguide. Figure 2(a) also shows fits for different orders of
polynomial to the group indices of the single-mode SOI waveguide. Figure 2(b) shows the
second and third order dispersion coefficients derived from the polynomial fits. The values
obtained at a wavelength of 1.5 m are 2 = -2.310.04 ps2/m and 3 = 0.01190.0009 ps3/m
respectively. The uncertainties quoted here are the result of the variation obtained when
fitting to different order polynomials since relative to this variation the uncertainties due to
the measurement error of the group index can be ignored. Our dispersion values are in the
order of magnitude agreement with the previously reported ones [13,14].
3. Nonlinear measurements
Our nonlinear experiments were carried out using the experimental setup shown in Fig. 3. An
optical parametric amplifier (OPA) provided ultrashort pulses centered at ~1.5m with a full
width at half maximum (FWHM) pulse length of ~100fs and a repetition rate of 250kHz. The
first polarizing cube after the OPA was used to remove the idler beam. By rotating the second
polarizer we could continuously adjust the power going through the third polarizer, which
was set to excite the TE mode in the waveguide. A singlet coated objective lens was then used
to couple the pulses into the SOI waveguide. This no-fiber arrangement minimized the
nonlinear and dispersive degradation of the input pulses. At the output end, the transmitted
pulses were collected through an AR-coated high NA (numerical aperture, 0.65) objective
lens followed by a piece of single mode fiber, and analysed using an optical spectrum
analyzer (OSA) or a photodetector.

Fig. 3. Schematic of the experimental configuration for nonlinear measurements.

As indicated in Fig. 3, a continuous wave (cw) laser at ~1.55m was launched into the
experimental setup using a flipper mirror, in order to characterize the linear loss caused by
coupling and propagation. A thermal power meter and a photodetector were cross calibrated
and then used to measure the power before/after the SOI waveguide and after the collecting
single-mode fiber. The results obtained combined with the known Fresnel reflection loss
between silicon and air (-1.56 dB) and the propagation loss along the waveguide (dB = -3.4
dB/cm) indicated that the mode-matching to the SOI waveguide caused a loss of ~ -23dB.
The light collection optics at the output caused losses ~ -9dB. Using these values of linear
loss, if an OPA pulse train with an average power of 100W were launched into the
experimental setup, the nonlinear length in the single-mode collecting fiber would be greater
than 1km. Thus the nonlinear response in this element can be neglected. We have also found

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that the spectra measured using this setup are modulated, which can be removed by placing a
polarizer (Pol. 4 in Fig. 3) before the collecting fiber. These evenly-spaced peaks appeared at
the same wavelength independent of the power level. We believe that these features are likely
to be caused by polarization mode conversion in the experimental setup and the resulting
mode beating following propagation through the (non-polarization-maintaining) collecting
fiber. Although this mode conversion should be very weak, the two photon absorption (TPA)
induced nonlinear attenuation could make the intensities of the TE mode and the TM mode
comparable at the output. The measurements presented below were obtained with the
polarizer 4 set for the TE polarization.
The spectrum of our OPA pulses is shown in the lower panel in Fig. 4(a), and the full
width at half maximum (FWHM) of the spectrum was measured to be 5.22THz. Assuming a
Gaussian shape, the FWHM pulse length was measured to be 100fs using an autocorrelator.
Hence, the time-bandwidth product of the input pulses was 0.522, implying a modest chirp.
Figure 4(a) shows the measured output spectra from our SOI waveguide as the input power
was increased. At low powers (average powers 1-2W) the output spectra are narrowed
relative to the input spectrum. Spectral broadening dominates the spectral evolution in the
input power range from 4W to 40W. Above 40W the spectral evolution begins to
saturate, with further power increases (up to 90W) resulting in only minor changes to the
output spectrum. Note that in order to convert the given measured average powers to find the
peak powers in the waveguide, the repetition rate of 250kHz, pulse length of 100fs and
coupling coefficient of -23dB must be taken into account. Numerical simulations are plotted
in Fig. 4(b) and will be described in the next section. We have used a calibrated photodetector
to measure the transmitted average power through the collection fiber. Figure 5 plots this
transmission curve as a function of the input power. Complete saturation of the transmission
is evident at input powers above 40W. In the quasi-linear regime we measured a total linear
attenuation of -40.6 dB, very close to the loss (-39.2 dB) measured using the cw laser at
1.55m.

Fig. 4. (a) Output spectra (linear scale) experimentally recorded at various input powers
plotted. (b) The same spectra modeled numerically. These spectra drawn for TPA only (dotted
blue line), TPA with free carrier effects (dashed red line) and TPA together with 3PA (solid
green line). 1W of the averaged input power corresponds to ~0.18W of the peak power inside
the waveguide.

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4. Analysis and modelling

In order to reproduce our experimental measurements numerically and to draw conclusions
about the nonlinear dynamics of pulses inside the waveguide, we have used a generalized
Nonlinear Schrodinger equation (NLS). This equation included the effects of the second and
third order dispersion, Kerr nonlinearity, multi-photon absorption, free-carrier generation and
linear loss. We have found that the effects of Raman scattering and dispersion of the
nonlinearity are negligible, the former is mainly due to slow time response of phonons
relative to the pulse duration and smallness of the Raman coefficient [10], and we have
excluded them from our model. The system was modeled using the equation

Fig. 5. Measured (black line with squares) average output power as a function of average input
power. The other lines are numerical calculations. These are drawn for TPA only (dotted blue
line), TPA with free carrier effects (dashed red line) and TPA with 3PA (solid green line).

i
2
4
E 2 E p3 3 E = (i tpa ) E E 1 E 3 pa E E fcc En (1)
2
Here E is the slowly varying envelope of the electric field, is time in the reference frame
moving with the input pulse group velocity and is distance along the waveguide. These
dimensionless units are related to real distance and time by t = T0 and z = LD, where LD =
T02/|2| = 1.4mm is the dispersion length and T0 is the input pulse duration. The shape of the
input pulse is assumed to be sech(t/T0), because precise information about the chirp on our
input pulses is not available. T0 = 57fs relates to the FWHM as TFWHM = 2 ln(1 +

2 )T0 .

Dispersion is accounted for by the experimentally-determined coefficients 2 and 3. The

scaled third-order-dispersion parameter is p3 = 3/(6|2|T0). The power is scaled such that the
P0|E|2 gives physical power, where P0 = |2|/(T02) = 0.36W is the soliton threshold for the
ideal NLS and is the nonlinear parameter of the waveguide. One should note that it is
difficult to estimate reliably from the analytical formulae, because the longitudinal
polarization component is strong and the field variations close to the waveguide boundaries
are steep so that many standard approximations are violated. In the existing literature one can
find various approaches to calculation of the nonlinear coefficients in photonic wire
waveguides, which give typical values from hundreds to a few thousands of (Wm)-1. See, e.g.
[8,12]. We use as a fitting parameter, and have found that reasonable agreement of our
modeling results with spectral measurements is achieved for = 2000/W/m. Taking into
account the overall coupling loss before the photonic wire of -23dB, we find that P0
corresponds to ~2W of the averaged laser power measured before the waveguide.
There are four principal sources of damping in our model. The first is linear loss, as
represented by 1 = T02||/(8.7|2|) = 0.055. Two-photon absorption (TPA) and three-photon

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absorption (3PA) tpa and 3pa are scaled to the nonlinear refractive index of silicon. For TPA
we have used a standard value of tpa = 0.1 [10]. Three-photon absorption is usually not
included in the modeling of pulse propagation in silicon photonic wires but we have found
that in order to match the measured dependence of the output vs input power relationship (see
Fig. 5) simply accounting for TPA and free-carrier absorption is insufficient.
Phenomenological inclusion of three-photon absorption improves agreement between the
modeling and measurements. We have selected 3pa = 0.05. The scaled free-carrier charge
(FCC) density n evolves as n = |E|4 T0n/c. The first term on the right-hand side
corresponds to carrier excitation due to TPA. The second term corresponds to the carrier
recombination, which can be ignored because the carrier lifetime c (which is of the order
10ns) is both much larger than the pulse duration, and much smaller than the inter-pulse
interval. Therefore, we can assume that the carrier density starts from zero at the beginning of
each pulse, with negligible intra-pulse decay. The physical density is N0n, where N0 =
tpaT0P02/(20A) = 71018m-3. Here tpa = 510-12m-1W-1 is the TPA coefficient, 0 is the
pump frequency and A is the waveguide cross-sectional area. The FCC absorption coefficient
fcc = LDN0(1+i) = 1.610-5(1+i7.5), where the absorption cross-section is
= 1.4510-21m2.
We have solved Eq. (1) numerically for the case of 100 fs pump pulses, neglecting
propagation in the multimode section of the waveguide. We present here the results for three
cases for comparison with experimental measurements and to clarify the role of the different
physical mechanisms influencing nonlinear propagation in the photonic wires. The results
presented take account of both the input and the output losses for direct comparison with
experiments.
In generating the first set of numerical data we have ignored both the coupling of the light
field to the free carrier equation and 3PA, as shown using dotted blue lines in Figs. 4(b) and
5. The slight shift at 4W in the spectral peak towards longer wavelengths can be seen in both
modeling and experiment, see Fig. 4. We have confirmed that this asymmetry appears due to
third order dispersion and can be reversed by changing its sign. With increasing power the
discrepancy between the model and experiment starts to develop. One can see that the width
of the modeled spectrum and the number of spectral peaks for powers above 20W quickly
exceeds the corresponding experimental values. On the output vs. input power plots (see, Fig.
5) the experimental curve also saturates faster, in agreement with the narrower measured
spectra.
The second set of data shown by the solid green lines in Figs. 4(b) and 5 addresses the
problem of weak saturation by including the 3PA term. One can see that the high power part
of the numerically generated plot in Fig. 5 is now much flatter and fits the experimental data
better. The spectral width generated numerically for high powers also agrees well with
measurements. In addition for small powers the correct asymmetry of the spectral peak is
retained.
The third set of data marked with the dashed red line disregards the 3PA term, but
introduces the generation of free carriers into the model. One can see that the spectral width
generated for high powers diverges well beyond the experimental data and for small powers,
the spectral asymmetry introduced by the free carriers is opposite to that seen in experiments.
Indeed, free carriers generated at the front edge of the pulse start to affect its trailing edge.
However, anomalous GVD implies that shorter wavelengths in the pulse spectrum propagate
faster, than the longer ones, implying that the shorter wavelengths are almost unaffected by
the free carriers, while the longer wavelengths are attenuated. For the parameters chosen in
the modeling this effect overcomes the spectral asymmetry introduced by the third order
dispersion and results in noticeable disagreement with experimental observations at 4W.
Thus, for the conditions of our experiment the best agreement across the relevant power range
is observed when the third order dispersion, linear loss, and instantaneous TPA and 3PA are
added to the ideal NLS model.

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Next, we turn our attention to the question of whether our spectral measurements and
modeling allow us to draw any conclusions about the formation of quasi-soliton pulses in
silicon photonic wires. To answer this question we focus on the regime of relatively low
input powers (< 5W) below the powers corresponding to the onset of the spectral splitting.
In this power regime all three models considered above give approximately the same results.
Increasing the peak intensity of the pump pulse should induce increasing nonlinear absorption
and the quasi-soliton pulses, if formed, are expected to spread temporally with a simultaneous
drop of their amplitude. If, however, such behavior happens in the adiabatic regime, when
the drop in the amplitude and increase in the length develop in a way that their product
remains constant, or almost constant, then one can speak about formation of adiabatically
evolving solitons. Indeed, the soliton solution of the ideal dimensionless NLS model is,

E=

2 q sech 2 q e iq . If the soliton parameter q is assumed to evolve in , then

the amplitude-width product of this adiabatically evolving soliton still remains a independent constant. Fig. 6(a) shows the temporal length (FWHM) normalized to the input
pulse width, which is always greater than one and hence the pulse spreads in time. However
in the power interval from ~1W up to ~3W the product of the amplitude and the pulse
FWHM (shown in Fig. 6(c)) remains quasi-constant and approximately corresponding to the
value found for the ideal NLS soliton (see dashed horizontal line). Another test that can
indirectly verify the formation of solitons is measurement of the spectral width of the signal
[9]. If an adiabatically dispersing soliton is formed, then the time-domain expansion should
be simultaneously accompanied by spectral narrowing. This test has been used in [9] as a
criterion for soliton formation in silicon photonic wires. Figure 6(b) shows the ratio of the
output to the input spectral width. One can see that the spectral narrowing begins to occur at
input powers well below the point where the amplitude-width products becomes quasiconstant, thereby showing the limitations of such an approach.

Fig. 6. (a) Output pulse length normalized to the input pulse length, plotted versus averaged
input power. (b) The same as (a), but for normalized spectral width. (c) Pulse amplitude
multiplied by the pulse length (FWHM) vs input power. The line colors and style are the same
as in Figs. 4 and 5. The horizontal line in (c) shows the value for the soliton in the ideal NLS
model.

Numerically computed evolution of a single quasi-soliton pulse along the waveguide

(using the model including 3PA) is shown in Fig. 7(a). For powers >3W the pulse
spreading becomes dominant and then, at 6W and above, the pulse splitting begins to
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develop. The spectral splitting of the pulse corresponds to splitting in the time domain (see
Fig. 7(b)) and can be characterized as fission of higher order quasi-solitons strongly perturbed
by the linear and nonlinear absorption. Figure 8 shows the evolution of the FWHM times
root-peak-power parameter along the waveguide for several input powers corresponding to
the single peak pulses. One can see that in the 1 and 4W cases the parameter changes
sufficiently rapidly demonstrating no evidence for the adiabatic soliton evolution. At the
same time, we have found that in the interval from 1.5 to 3W (see 1.7 and 2W curves) ,
variations of the FWHM times root-peak-power parameter along the waveguide length can be
considered insignificant and this product stays sufficiently close to the value found for the
ideal NLS, thereby confirming adiabatic evolution of the quasi-solitons in the presence of
strong linear and nonlinear absorption effects.

Fig. 7. Time domain evolution of the pulse amplitude along the waveguide. (a) corresponds to
the 2W input and (b) to 8W.

Fig. 8. Evolution of the pulse amplitude multiplied by the pulse length (FWHM) along the
waveguide. The horizontal dashed line shows the value for the soliton in the ideal NLS model.

5. Summary
We have carried out experimental and numerical studies of the propagation of 100fs
pulses in 15mm long silicon-on-insulator photonic wire waveguides in the regime of strongly
anomalous dispersion. The second- and third-order dispersion values used in our modeling
have been reliably estimated from direct experimental measurements of the group index.
Reasonable agreement between experiment and numerical simulation for both low and high
powers has allowed us to conclude that there is a range of input powers for which quasisoliton pulses with peak powers below and around 1W are formed and propagate within the
photonic wires. Our numerical analysis of the soliton propagation regimes and use of the long
15mm waveguides provide more evidence for the existence of quasi-solitons in the SOI
photonic wires in the presence of strong linear and nonlinear absorption, than has been
previously reported. In the case of the single-soliton femtosecond pump accounting for the
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two photon absorption and linear losses suffices for adequate description of the experimental
observations. However, the best modelling to experiment fit for the high energy multi-soliton
pump pulses is achieved, when the phenomenological three photon absorption term is added
into the model, thus calling for further work on first principles calculations of the ultrafast
nonlinear behavior of silicon.
Acknowledgement
We acknowledge support from the EPSRC (UK).

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