IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics
Phase Controlled Bistability in Silicon Microring Resonators for Nonlinear Photonics
Riddhi Nandi, Arnab Goswami, Bijoy Krishna Das
Abstract
Resonance shift and bistability in a silicon microring resonator operating at higher optical power levels pose serious difficulties, especially in nonlinear four wave mixing process. A solution of parking a laser wavelength around any of the resonances of a microring resonator and operating at any power levels is explored by integrating a microheater. We have shown with the existing theoretical model that the previous history of phase detuning in a silicon microring resonator determines the effective gain in stimulated four wave mixing process. The experimental results have been shown to be closely matching with the simulation results. For a microring resonator of radius 50 μm, an improved stimulated four wave mixing gain of ~ 11.6 dB has been observed while thermo-optically blue-shifting resonances in comparison to that of red-shifting resonances, for a launched pump power of 8.4 mW operating at a slightly off-resonant wavelength λp. The proposed technique can be used in designing actively controlled efficient photon sources in a large-scale integrated quantum photonic circuit operating at λ ~ 1550 nm.