Single- and two-photon absorption induced all-optical control of gallium selenide integrated silicon nitride photonic devices in the 700–800 nm wavelength range

Abstract

In this work, we report single- and two-photon absorption (TPA) induced transmission and resonance modulation in a multilayer gallium selenide (GaSe) integrated silicon nitride (Si3N4) waveguide and ring resonator operating in the 700–800 nm wavelength range. Intensity dependent saturable absorption at low optical powers followed by TPA at higher power levels in GaSe integrated Si3N4 waveguides is observed at 785 nm pulsed laser excitation. A TPA coefficient of 0.117 cm/GW for the GaSe–Si3N4 composite waveguide and a three-photon absorption coefficient of 7.876 × 10−6 cm3/GW2 for the bare Si3N4 waveguide are extracted from intensity dependent transmission measurements. The single-photon absorption process induced by a blue laser incident on the multilayer GaSe transferred on top of the Si3N4 ring resonator is used for all-optical resonance tuning through the free-carrier refraction effect. A strong blue shift of the resonance by ∼12.3 pm/mW combined with resonance broadening is observed due to the free-carrier induced refractive index and absorption modulation. The TPA in the GaSe integrated Si3N4 ring resonator is also shown to result in a blue shift of the resonances excited using a 785 nm pulsed laser. This work demonstrates the all-optical control of 2D material integrated Si3N4 guided-wave structures operating in the shorter near-infrared wavelength range with potential applications in integrated quantum photonics, miniaturized sensing devices, and biomedical imaging.