Nonlinear loss characterization of continuous wave guiding in silicon wire waveguides

Abstract

Abstract Accurate propagation loss characterization of silicon waveguides is increasingly demanded for silicon-photonics-(Si-Ph) applications with high-power continuous-wave-(CW) light sources. We report on nonlinear loss parameters of silicon wire waveguides for 1.31 μm wavelength CW light extracted from transmission data measured for different lengths and polarizations. Such parameters were, so far, unavailable, although they are required for accurately modeling Si-Ph optical circuits. More-than-ten-times enhancement of two-photon absorption from prior results for short pulse light was observed at power densities ranging up to 4.7 × 1011 W m−2 while free carrier absorption was suppressed. We estimate the nonlinear loss of the waveguides using the parameter values obtained.