Raman amplification and tunable pulse delays in silicon waveguides

Abstract

The nonlinear process of stimulated Raman scattering is important for silicon photonics as it enables optical amplification and lasing. However, generally employed numerical approaches provide very little insight into the contribution of different silicon Raman amplifier (SRA) parameters. In this paper, we solve the coupled pump-signal equations analytically and derive an exact formula for the envelope of a signal pulse when picosecond optical pulses are amplified inside a SRA pumped by a continuous-wave laser beam. Our solution is valid for an arbitrary pulse shape and fully accounts for the Raman gain-dispersion effects, including temporal broadening and group-velocity reduction. Our results are useful for optimizing the performance of SRAs and for engineering controllable signal delays. Show more