《Raman-based silicon photonics》.pdf

412 IEEE JOURNAL OF SELECTED TOPICS IN QUANTUM ELECTRONICS, VOL. 12, NO. 3, MAY/JUNE 2006 Raman-Based Silicon Photonics Bahram Jalali, Fellow, IEEE, Varun Raghunathan, Student Member, IEEE, Dimitri Dimitropoulos, ¨ and Ozdal Boyraz, Member, IEEE (Invited Paper) Abstract—This paper reviews recent progress in a new branch The prospects for active optical functionality in silicon have of silicon photonics that exploits Raman scattering as a practi- drastically improved since the adoption of the Raman effect as cal and elegant approach for realizing active photonic devices in a mechanism for producing amplifiers, lasers, and wavelength pure silicon. The large Raman gain in the material, enhanced by the tight optical confinement in Si/SiO2 heterostructures, has en- converters. Last year was witness to the demonstration of the abled the demonstration of the first optical amplifiers and lasers in first silicon laser [4]. The rapid pace of progress is continuing, silicon. Wavelength conversion, between the technologically impor- and the first quarter of 2005 has already seen the demonstration tant wavelength bands of 1300 and 1500 nm, has also been demon- of direct electrical modulation of the Raman laser [5] and report strated through Raman four wave mixing. Since carrier generation of the first continuous-wave (CW) silicon Raman laser [6]. through two photon absorption is omnipresent in semiconductors, carrier lifetime is the single most important parameter affecting Raman scattering was proposed and demonstrated in 2002 as the performance of s