On-chip light source produces versatile range of wavelengths

Science Daily  December 19, 2019
A team of researchers in the US (NIST, University of Maryland, Carnegie Mellon University) has created visible light from an infrared pump by widely separated optical parametric oscillation (OPO) using silicon nanophotonics. The OPO creates signal and idler light in the 700 nm and 1300 nm bands, respectively, with a 900 nm pump. It operates at a threshold power of (0.9±0.1)mW, over 50× smaller than other widely separated microcavity OPO works, which have been reported only in the infrared. This low threshold enables direct pumping without need of an intermediate optical amplifier. The device design can be modified to generate 780 nm and 1500 nm light with a similar power efficiency. The device is power efficient, has operation stability, and scalability, and is a major advance towards flexible on-chip generation of coherent visible light…red more. Open Access TECHNICAL ARTICLE