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Free-carrier-induced soliton fission unveiled by in situ measurements in nanophotonic waveguides

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  • Chad Husko

    (Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney
    Present address: Center for Nanoscale Materials, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, Illinois USA)

  • Matthias Wulf

    (Center for Nanophotonics, FOM Institute AMOLF
    Present address: Institute of Science and Technology (IST) Austria, Klosterneuburg, Austria)

  • Simon Lefrancois

    (Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney)

  • Sylvain Combrié

    (Thales Research and Technology,)

  • Gaëlle Lehoucq

    (Thales Research and Technology,)

  • Alfredo De Rossi

    (Thales Research and Technology,)

  • Benjamin J. Eggleton

    (Centre for Ultrahigh bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems (CUDOS), Institute of Photonics and Optical Science (IPOS), School of Physics, University of Sydney)

  • L. Kuipers

    (Center for Nanophotonics, FOM Institute AMOLF)

Abstract

Solitons are localized waves formed by a balance of focusing and defocusing effects. These nonlinear waves exist in diverse forms of matter yet exhibit similar properties including stability, periodic recurrence and particle-like trajectories. One important property is soliton fission, a process by which an energetic higher-order soliton breaks apart due to dispersive or nonlinear perturbations. Here we demonstrate through both experiment and theory that nonlinear photocarrier generation can induce soliton fission. Using near-field measurements, we directly observe the nonlinear spatial and temporal evolution of optical pulses in situ in a nanophotonic semiconductor waveguide. We develop an analytic formalism describing the free-carrier dispersion (FCD) perturbation and show the experiment exceeds the minimum threshold by an order of magnitude. We confirm these observations with a numerical nonlinear Schrödinger equation model. These results provide a fundamental explanation and physical scaling of optical pulse evolution in free-carrier media and could enable improved supercontinuum sources in gas based and integrated semiconductor waveguides.

Suggested Citation

  • Chad Husko & Matthias Wulf & Simon Lefrancois & Sylvain Combrié & Gaëlle Lehoucq & Alfredo De Rossi & Benjamin J. Eggleton & L. Kuipers, 2016. "Free-carrier-induced soliton fission unveiled by in situ measurements in nanophotonic waveguides," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 7(1), pages 1-7, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:7:y:2016:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms11332
    DOI: 10.1038/ncomms11332
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