High efficiency wavelength conversion of 10 Gb/s data in silicon waveguides

Efficient wavelength conversion via four-wave-mixing in silicon-on-isolator p-i-n waveguides has been realized. By reverse biasing the p-i-n diode structure formed along the silicon rib waveguide, the nonlinear absorption due to two photon absorption induced free carrier absorption is significantly reduced, and a wavelength conversion efficiency of -8.5 dB has been achieved in an 8 cm long waveguide at a pump intensity of 40 MW/cm2. A high-speed pseudo-random bit sequence data at 10 Gb/s rate is converted to a new wavelength channel in the C-band with clear open eye diagram and no waveform distortion. Conversion efficiency as functions of pump power, wavelength detuning, and bias voltages, have been investigated. For shorter waveguides of 1.6 cm long, a conversion bandwidth of > 30 nm was achieved.