Abstract
Abstract
Mid-infrared (Mid-IR) Kerr frequency combs have great application potential in sensing and spectroscopy. To generate a Kerr frequency comb, a continuous-wave, wavelength-tunable, narrow-linewidth, low-noise laser is normally utilized to pump a high-nonlinearity micro-resonator to emit a large number of coherent and equally spaced modes. However, chip-based pump lasers in the mid-IR band, namely, quantum cascade lasers and interband cascade lasers, are usually challenging to develop with both high output powers and good wavelength tunability based on a single diode. To overcome the limitation, we theoretically study a mid-IR Kerr frequency comb generation technique based on a graphene-on-silicon micro-resonator by using a monochromatic mid-IR laser. The approach is based on the exploration of an electric-field-assisted resonance scanning technique and graphene-enhanced silicon Kerr nonlinearity. Our result shows that a soliton Kerr frequency comb with a spectral range of 3.23–5.26 μm, 3-dB bandwidth of ∼550 nm, and frequency spacing of 140 GHz could be generated under a pump wavelength of 4 μm. The study paves a promising way toward developing monolithically chip-integrated mid-IR Kerr frequency combs with cost efficiencies and ultrafast tuning speeds.
Funder
National Natural Science Foundation of China
Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China
Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin
Subject
Condensed Matter Physics,Mathematical Physics,Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics