Research Article

Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs

with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides
Jianhao Zhang,a,* Vincent Pelgrin,a Carlos Alonso-Ramos,a Laurent Vivien,a Sailing He,b and Eric Cassana,*
a
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, Centre de Nanosciences et de Nanotechnologies, Palaiseau, France
b
Zhejiang University, Centre for Optical and Electromagnetic Research, State Key Laboratory for Modern Optical Instrumentation, Hangzhou, China

Abstract. Dispersion engineering of optical waveguides is among the most important steps in enabling the
realization of Kerr optical frequency combs. A recurring problem is the limited bandwidth in which the nonlinear
phase matching condition is satisfied, due to the dispersion of the waveguide. This limitation is particularly
stringent in high-index-contrast technologies such as silicon-on-insulator. We propose a general approach to
stretch the bandwidth of Kerr frequency combs based on subwavelength engineering of single-mode
waveguides with self-adaptive boundaries. The wideband flattened dispersion operation comes from the
particular property of the waveguide optical mode that automatically self-adapts its spatial profile at
different wavelengths to slightly different effective spatial spans determined by its effective index values. This
flattened dispersion relies on the squeezing of small normal-dispersion regions between two anomalous spectral
zones, which enables it to achieve two Cherenkov radiation points and substantially broaden the comb,
achieving a bandwidth between 2.2 and 3.4 μm wavelength. This strategy opens up a design space for
trimming the spectra of Kerr frequency combs using high-index-contrast platforms and can provide benefits
to various nonlinear applications in which the manipulation of energy spacing and phase matching are pivotal.
Keywords: nonlinear optics; effective boundary; subwavelength grating; silicon frequency comb.
Received Feb. 23, 2020; revised manuscript received May 26, 2020; accepted for publication Jun. 1, 2020; published online
Jun. 23, 2020.
© The Authors. Published by SPIE and CLP under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. Distribution or
reproduction of this work in whole or in part requires full attribution of the original publication, including its DOI.
[DOI: 10.1117/1.AP.2.4.046001]

1 Introduction Controlling the chromatic dispersion of optical waveguides is

Third-order nonlinear optical processes in photonic waveguides a key preliminary step for the exploitation of Kerr frequency
have raised increasing interest in recent years, due to their combs. As such, the problem is quite simple in principle: it is
unique capabilities for on-chip light generation and for the essentially a question of optimizing the geometrical dimensions
manipulation of guided light in spectral/temporal domains, with of the waveguides in order to compensate for the material natu-
an immense potential for the implementation of light sources ral dispersion as well as that provided by the nonlinear effect
based on optical parametric amplification, supercontinuum, or itself, in order to satisfy, as a whole, the energy and momentum
frequency comb generation processes.1–9 Kerr frequency comb conservation conditions. To balance the nonlinearity-induced
generation has great potential for applications in a wide range of wavevector phase mismatch, anomalous dispersion is generally
fields, from metrology-on-a-chip to the synthesis of radiofre- envisaged;10,11,20 it can be supported directly from the materials
quency signals or integrated spectroscopy.10–19 Comprising dis- (e.g., silica at telecom wavelengths) or induced by the wave-
crete and equally spaced frequency lines, the Kerr frequency guide dispersion with well-designed waveguide cross-sections.
combs require precise control of the waveguide dispersion and As a result, toroidal-shape cavities using silica10 or MgF2 12,13 are
nonlinearity, the gain and loss of optical waveguides, especially frequently used for frequency comb generation due to their
when temporal patterns with few solitons are expected.20 ultrahigh Q factors of up to a few millions and to the low
dispersion in these structures. Another classical material platform
used for frequency comb demonstrations is based on silicon
*Address all correspondence to Eric Cassan, E-mail: eric.cassan@universite-paris- nitride (SiN) waveguides. Due to the high quality-factors of
saclay.fr; Jianhao Zhang, E-mail: [email protected] SiN microring resonators (up to ∼106 ) and a nonlinear Kerr index

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

around 2.4 × 10−19 m2 ∕W, high-performance frequency combs which leads to the generation of a frequency comb. From a tem-
extending two octaves can be achieved on-chip.15–18 Despite the poral point of view, the generation of such a broad-spectrum
merits and inherent advantages of this platform, the SiN wave- comb corresponds to a regime of short solitonic pulses or even,
guides are less attractive for compact photonic integration than in the best of cases, to a regime of monosoliton propagation in
silicon ones. The realization of Kerr frequency combs directly in the ring. The full dynamics of the comb generation process in
Si waveguides thus presents great interest. However, achieving which a Kerr microring resonator is fed by a side-coupled wave-
broadband phase-matching in Si waveguides is difficult due to guide can be quantitatively described by solving the nonlinear
the high-index contrast between Si and SiO2 (Δn ≈ 2) that Schrödinger equation, in the form of the Lugiato–Lefever equa-
makes the dispersion engineering condition highly sensitive to tion (LLE)39–45,47,51
wavelength.5,21 It appears that, by moving from silicon nitride to  
silicon waveguides, an advantage (a lower pump power) and ∂ pffiffiffi κ
a drawback (a reduced frequency comb spectral width) result τR Aðt; τÞ ¼ κAin ðτÞ − þ iδ0 Aðt; τÞ
∂t 2
simultaneously. Consequently, addressing the problem of the  X n  k
spectral bandwidth of microcombs in silicon waveguides is an βk ∂
þ i i k þ iγjAðt; τÞj2
important point. Broadband phase-matching was shown based k¼2
k! ∂τ
on the optimization of high order dispersion terms, e.g., by re-
lying on fourth-order dispersive waveguides,22–26 or by imple- β2PA β α
− jAðt; τÞj2 − 3PA
2
jAðt; τÞj4 −
menting slightly etched rib geometries.6 Yet, the proposed 2Aeff 3Aeff 2
solutions require complex fabrication processes, with deposition 
α
of different materials or a tight control of the rib and slab thick- − FCA LAðt; τÞ; (1)
nesses, respectively. Though mode-locked pulse generation has 2
been achieved using normal-dispersion,27 a flexible method to
flatten the silicon waveguide dispersion and trim the spectra where Aðt; τÞ is the pulse amplitude described by the time var-
for Kerr frequency comb generation is still expected. The fea- iable τ in a time frame corresponding to each round trip, t stands
sibility of spectrum engineering28 could further enhance optical for the accumulated calculation time while τR is the roundtrip
frequency combs as strong candidates for the realization of on- span, βk is the k’th derivative of the wavevector with respect to
∂kβ
chip silicon light sources29 and could provide a strong basis for the angular frequency βk ¼ ∂ω k (e.g., β 2 is the group velocity

many applications in on-chip spectroscopy or metrology,30 as dispersion), γ is the Kerr nonlinear parameter, α is the linear
well as for emerging research domains such as time-space- waveguide loss, β2PA , and β3PA stand for the two-photon51–53
frequency mapping.31 and three-photon absorption coefficients,54,55 respectively, and
We propose here a method to trim the dispersion of strong Aeff is the waveguide effective mode area. The free-carrier
index contrast waveguides using a self-adaptive boundary effects56,57 induced by multiphoton absorption are considered
condition to significantly extend the bandwidth of Kerr comb here through the αFCA coefficient, which is governed by the car-
spectra. This boundary condition was originally introduced in rier density Nðt; τÞ. The carrier density Nðt; τÞ is dynamically
Ref. 32 for multimode optical waveguides in which an equiv- related to the intracavity power and the carrier lifetime tFC
alent potential well33–35 in the waveguide transverse direction through ∂τ ∂ β2PA
Nðt; τÞ ¼ 2ℏωA 2 jAðt; τÞj þ
4 β3PA
3ℏωA3
jAðt; τÞj6 − Nðt;τÞ
tFC .
was achieved by the use of a lateral index profile, enabling eff eff

an automatic phase-matching condition of degenerate four- The pump is characterized by its amplitude Ain and δ0 , which
wave-mixing processes. We explore here the properties of such describes the phase detuning between the pump frequency ω0
waveguides, now operating in the single mode regime, and and the closest n’th-order cold-cavity resonant frequency ωn of
investigate their use for frequency comb generation. Our study the ring resonator.
shows that, in fact, such waveguides have an immense potential For the purpose of making reasonable comparison with pre-
in terms of chromatic dispersion engineering, which can be made viously proposed architectures and sticking to the fact that a PIN
minimal or slightly abnormal in a wide spectral band, while being structure is sometimes needed to obviate free carrier accumula-
controllable by the geometrical parameters of the structures. The tion issues,14,53 a rib-shaped waveguide structure can be reason-
interest lies in the general nature of the proposed method, which ably considered in a first approach, as shown in the inset of
can be implemented on various photonic platforms and can also Fig. 1(a). The dispersion curve from Ref. 14 is reproduced in
be applied to waveguides with high core-cladding index con- Fig. 1(a) (gray solid line), quantitatively through estimating
d2 β
trasts. The metric used in this study is the spectral bandwidth D ¼ −2πc
λ2
· dω 2 . Other compressed rib waveguides geometries

of the Kerr frequency combs achieved from this approach and (340-nm-thick silicon film, without SiN cladding) with rather
the comparison with standard silicon waveguides. similar dispersion properties but centered at smaller wave-
lengths are also chosen (orange and red curves), as shown in
2 Comb Bandwidth of Silicon Step-Index Fig. 1(a). Two configurations based on this thickness are shown
in the inset, with only a difference in the waveguide width.
Waveguide Compared with a fully etched strip waveguide with the same
The generation of Kerr frequency combs is traditionally or even a thinner thickness, these rib waveguides present a lower
achieved in a Kerr nonlinear ring/disk resonator, and the overall dispersion in the considered wavelength range. Four working
process of comb generation has been discussed in previous points, including that of Ref. 14 (point 0), one for the 950-
works.12,36–51 A narrowband continuous optical source (laser) nm rib waveguide width configuration (point 1), and two for
is centered close to an optical resonance of the ring resonator. the 1050-nm wide rib case (points 2 and 3), are selected for
If the chromatic dispersion of the ring is well chosen, it can re- a further investigation of the dispersion-governed comb spec-
sult in a cascade of FWM processes in the frequency domain, trum properties.

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

Fig. 1 (a) Dispersion curves of silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides with different dimensions,
including the one (gray line) from Ref. 14. Inset: Cross-section of a silicon ring resonator used
for Kerr frequency comb modeling. (b), (d) The wavevector mismatch and associated spectra of
frequency combs, with the working points indicated in (a). The near-bottom spectra are the
corresponding primary comb lines. (c) The wavelength-dependent Kerr coefficient and its inter-
pretation in the time domain in the single-soliton comb state, indicated by smooth and modulated
curves in black. The pattern of the temporal soliton is also given in blue, corresponding to the upper
(τ) and right (power) axis.

Due to the chromatic dispersion, light propagating along the bandwidth, as shown in Fig. 1(d). Parameters used here have
ring resonator with different frequencies features different group been directly extracted from Ref. 14, i.e., the pump power is
velocities. The wavevector β at the frequency ω, will deviate fixed to 150 mW, a ring radius of 100 μm is considered, and
from the wavevector of the pump (β0 at frequency ω0 ) by a free-carrier lifetime of 10 ps is adopted, while propagation
β0 þ β1 ðω − ω0 Þ. Using Taylor’s expansion, this mismatch is losses of 0.7 dB∕cm are assumed, and critical coupling condi-
noted as Δβ ¼ ½β − β0 − β1 ðω − ω0 Þ ¼ β2n ðω − ω0 Þ2 þ …þ tions are retained. The wavelength-dependent Kerr nonlinear
Pn βk  ∂ k  coefficient4–6,21,28 was obtained using γ ¼ 2πn 2η ng 2
λAneff · ðnSi Þ , where
βn n
n! ðω − ω0 Þ , which is considered an operator i k¼2 k! i ∂τk
in Eq. (1). This classical figure of merit for evaluating a Kerr n2 , η, and Aneff are the nonlinear index of silicon, the interaction
comb bandwidth13,15 is usually called “integrated dispersion” overlap between the electric field and the silicon core, and the
and is expressed in units of the microring free spectral range effective mode area, respectively. ng and nSi are the group index
number. We prefer here to consider it as the dispersion “wave- of the optical mode and the material index, respectively. The
vector mismatch” consistent with its native expression. In interpretation of the nonlinear coefficient in the time domain
Fig. 1(b), we show the wavevector mismatch Δβ for the different of the single-soliton state, labeled here by a blue line, is also
waveguide configurations mentioned above. Points 0, 1, and 2 shown in Fig. 1(c) in black. We clearly see that even though
are very typical operating points where Δβ rapidly evolves from the nonlinear coefficient decreases rapidly with increasing
Δβ ¼ 0 with near-parabolic-shape local traces and increases wavelength due to an enlarged mode area, the nonlinear coef-
back again with a second Δβ ¼ 0 intersection where Cherenkov ficient is more or less anchored to the value obtained at the pump
radiations are generated15 [see also the secondary spectral peaks wavelength, being modulated only near the soliton position
in Fig. 1(d) for several waveguide configurations close to the where energy from all frequencies comes to make a contri-
secondary dispersion cancellation points]. Compared with point bution.
1, points 0 and 2 show smaller dispersion values (and possibly One of the possible ways to expand the frequency comb
narrower anomalous regions) and therefore smaller deviations spectrum is to shift the working point to a position closer to
from the Δβ ¼ 0 condition, which leads to larger spectrum Δβ ¼ 0 on the same curve. Comparing point 3 to point 2,

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

it can be observed that this action leads to the flattening of the primary frequency lines are critical to the following subcombs
wavevector mistmach Δβ [Fig. 1(b)] and therefore to a band- and to the overall comb shape (and its bandwidth) around the
width improvement in Fig. 1(d). Configuration using working pump line. It is thus very interesting to reduce and engineer
point 3 presents a comb bandwidth that is comparable (more the dispersion coefficient D globally while keeping the other
precisely, a bit better) to that reported in Ref. 14 and is thus used parameters fixed (γ, Pin , etc.).22–26 This matter is discussed in
hereafter as the reference case. The primary comb lines12,13,15 that the next section of the article.
are generated in the early stage of the comb generation process
provide information that is useful for evaluating the bandwidth 3 Silicon Frequency Comb with Engineered
of parametric process;24–26 it is also plotted for point 3 at the
bottom of Fig. 1(d). This is considered by the phase matching Dispersion in Self-Adaptive Boundary
condition with the nonlinearity-induced phase and the group Waveguides
velocity dispersion taken into account and is approximately In a standard step-index single-mode waveguide like the one
described using23,24 described in Fig. 2(a), several wavelengths actually have the
same physical boundaries. When the light wavelength increases,
λ2 a more and more significant fraction of the mode energy is
Δβtotal ¼ 2γPintra − D · ðΔωÞ2 : (2) pushed out of the waveguide core into the cladding material.
2πc
To illustrate this point, in Fig. 2(b), we consider the dispersion
Here, Pintra is the intracavity power, while Δω is the frequency curve of a 750 nm × 300 nm SOI waveguide (single-mode for
distance between the generated waves (idle/signal). These λ > 2.1 μm). In view of this curve, it is quite remarkable that the

Fig. 2 (a) Schematics of a step-index waveguide. (b) The chromatic dispersion parameter (D) of
a silicon waveguide with a width and a height of 750 and 300 nm, respectively [n ¼ 3.48 for
the waveguide core, with an air upper cladding and silica (n ¼ 1.44) for the bottom cladding].
(c) Schematics of a graded-index waveguide ensuring a self-adapting (SAB) condition (as defined
in the text) and operating in a single-mode regime in the explored wavelength range. (d) Chromatic
dispersion parameter D of the waveguide mode. The width and height of the waveguide are 750
and 340 nm, respectively.

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

variation of the chromatic dispersion of the mode remains mod- In contrast, since the short wavelength (nb > neff ) is confined
erate up to about 2.7 μm. Then, its evolution becomes very fast. by the effective width of the waveguide where the electric field
This illustrates the notable point that will guide our strategy to passes smoothly, the dispersion does not vary a lot. The self-
optimize the geometry of optical waveguides for the generation adaptive response can be achieved in a continuously varying
of Kerr frequency combs: the chromatic dispersion of the wave- index profile, or in a discrete scheme, as shown in Fig. 3(a),
guides is actually strongly related to the degree of spatial con- where a multilevel silicon segment waveguide is described.
finement of the guided mode. In situations in which the mode This structure is, on the one hand, compatible with the liberation
cannot extend laterally due to spatial confinement from fixed of the silicon waveguide from the silica substrate for eliminating
boundary conditions, its chromatic dispersion amplitude tends the absorption of SiO2 for wavelengths higher than 3.6 μm; on
to increase. One possible way to limit the waveguide mode the other hand, it provides room for the possible realization of a
dispersion is therefore to ensure a smooth spatial lateral confine- lateral PIN structure if needed for sweeping out free-carriers
ment and to minimize the effect of the lateral waveguide boun- through a reverse applied bias, as shown in the inset.
daries by allowing the electromagnetic guided mode to spatially To further expand the previous ideas, we now illustrate the
spread as freely as possible. Investigating this kind of wave- proposed principle with a few typical examples chosen for their
guide modes has led us to identify a so-called self-adaptive applicative relevance. The silicon thickness is chosen first at
boundary (SAB) condition.32 340 nm as proposed in the reference structure in Fig. 1, which
With this objective in mind, we decided to explore the use represents an appropriate value for optimizing the waveguide
of SAB waveguides32 within the perspective of using their dispersion in the 2 to 4 μm wavelength range. The length and
unusual dispersion properties to generate Kerr frequency combs. width of the nanoarms are fixed at Larm ¼ 50 nm and warm ¼
Figure 2(c) shows a typical lateral index profile of an SAB 2.5 μm, which are values that are compatible with deep ultra-
waveguide, where the longitudinal axis of the upper diagram violet immersion lithography fabrication techniques. Let us first
and the intensity of the gray region of the lower diagram both consider bilevel cases in which the value of w2 in Fig. 3(a) is
represent the material index of the waveguide core. A graded- zero. Four configurations are plotted for comparison. The
index profile along the transverse direction of the waveguide is corresponding parameters are listed in the figure and figure
used here, with ncent , nb , and nc representing the material index caption. As the SAB condition can flatten the mode anomalous
at waveguide center, at the waveguide inner edge, and the one dispersion level for wavelengths not confined by the outer
of the cladding region. In a traditional strip waveguide (i.e., boundary, ripples containing two local peaks of anomalous
ncent ¼ nb ), the standing-wave region is confined by the boun- dispersion can be expected using a bilevel SAB waveguide
dary at the nb ∕nc interface since nb > neff . The standing-wave geometry, as observed in Fig. 3(b). The period of Bragg reflec-
region is then the same for all wavelengths. In contrast, in a tion is around 430 nm, which is much larger than the longi-
waveguide like the one represented in Fig. 2(c), if nb < neff , tudinal period that we consider (240 nm). Accordingly, this
then the standing wave region is, instead, confined by the points small period creates a bandgap only for wavelengths below
where the material and the mode effective index values are 1.47 μm, which is far from our pump wavelength. This enables
equal. Since the mode effective index depends on the light the periodic structure to operate as a homogeneous material58–60
wavelength, this leads to confining regions of different widths in which the frequency–wavevector curve is much less disper-
for different wavelengths, as illustrated in Fig. 2(c). In this sit- sive than those near the band edge. Despite the fact that photonic
uation, each confined field at a given wavelength automatically bandgap effects from this periodic structure do not spoil the
adapts its profile to a given spatial extension. To interrogate the predicted dispersion and the overall validity of the proposed
effect of this SAB on the waveguide dispersion, the dispersion design, previous studies61,62 have indicated that splitting of some
curves of a strip and two gradual SAB waveguides are put to- resonant peaks can be observed under a certain grating phase
gether for comparison in Fig. 2(d). Such graded-index profiles condition. However, this high-order grating effect is much
can be practically achieved by relying on the toolbox of sub- slighter than the first one and is not included in our discussion.
wavelength waveguide engineering,58–60 as we mentioned in In these cases, a moderate index contrast with a filling factor
Ref. 32. As shown in the inset of Fig. 2(d), the waveguide is varying from 1 to 0.66 (i.e., L1 ∕p ¼ 1) is chosen. As observed
composed by a periodical corrugation in which the individual in Fig. 3(b), the whole wavelength range extending from 2.2 to
period is itself characterized by a unitary silicon filling factor 3.4 μm is greatly flattened. Compared with those classical strip/
at the center and a reduced one at the edge. Using such a typical rib waveguides where the dispersion curve normally displays a
patterned structure, an equivalent material index can be flexibly parabolic shape, there is more than one local peak (e.g., one at
designed.32 In the precise study case reported in Fig. 2(d), the 2.3 μm and one at 3.3 μm) existing in an anomalous region,
period, thickness, and width of the stair-case graded index which gives us a new degree of freedom for dispersion engineer-
waveguide were chosen as 150, 340, and 750 nm, respectively. ing purpose. In particular, a small normal-dispersion region
The dispersion of the strip waveguide displays a trend that is (gray zone) is squeezed out between these two wide anomalous
similar to the one of Fig. 2(b), highlighting a rapid change at regions (highlighted by blue and purple colors, from left to
long wavelengths. When the SAB condition is applied, the right). We also emphasize that the equivalent index of the
dispersion in Fig. 2(d) can actually be separated in two regions: outermost subwavelength cladding is ∼1.84 compared with
the left part (blue region) corresponding to the nb < neff con- the core index ∼3.48, which promises a high index contrast
dition and the right one (red region) for nb > neff . Dispersion and tight mode confinement. The dispersion distortion associ-
of a strip waveguide and SAB waveguide with nb ¼ 1.5 and ated with the bending radius could be seamlessly addressed by
nb ¼ 2.8 is shown in Fig. 2(d) for comparison. The SAB allows increasing the ring radius or by engineering the filling factor of
us to trim the dispersion of the “long” wavelength where nb < the waveguide.
neff and the wave is confined by the index contrast of nb ∕nc Two working points are selected for the calculation of the
with the phase integral strongly dependent on the index nb . wavevector mismatch Δβ, as shown in Fig. 3(c). The curve

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

Fig. 3 (a) Schematic of a graded-index waveguide ensuring a self-adapting (SAB) condition.

Inset: Possible a configuration comprising doped regions for free-carrier extraction. (b) Chromatic
dispersion parameter D of the four possible configurations of the proposed bilevel geometry. The
silicon height is t ¼ 340 nm. (c) The calculated wavevector mismatch and (d) the single-soliton
comb spectrum for our proposed SAB waveguide, at the working point in (b), compared with the
reference rib microring described in Fig. 1 (red color). The two predicted Cherenkov radiation
points are marked by the dashed circles in (c).

with point 1 shows a typical parabolic shape due to the high final single-soliton comb is 1.513 GHz from the initialization.
dispersion value and the rapid change of dispersion. However, In all of the cases considered here, the two-photon-induced
by pushing it to point 2, two intersection points (therefore two and three-photon-induced absorption lead to extra loss of not
Cherenkov radiation regions) with Δβ ¼ 0 are now achieved; more than 0.001 and 0.01 dB∕cm, in which the additional loss
they are highlighted by the black dashed circles. The consecu- penalty is much smaller than the linear loss level itself. The free
tiveness of these two intersections, only spaced by ∼300 nm, carrier lifetime considered in this case is 50 ps. From our model,
forces the whole curve to be flattened. Consequently, even better we estimated the influence of a free-carrier lifetime ranging
results than the reference one (red curve) are then obtained. from 10 to 100 ps and observed, in the considered conditions,
Though fourth-order dispersion15,21 and even higher-order a weak influence of its value on the comb dynamics and the
dispersion63 have been adopted for extending the zero-GVD required pumping power. In a complementary fashion, we
working point, an improvement in comb bandwidth has not noticed that free-carriers exert a strong influence on the whole
yet been witnessed. Flat dispersion has been achieved in a sim- process only when their lifetime is larger than 200 ps, in which
ilar way in a vertical-slot waveguide,64 but the heterogeneous case the carrier density can reach a few 1016 cm−3, which in
implementation was less attractive compared with our mono- return puts strong demand on the pump. Since the three-photon
lithic approach. The corresponding single-soliton comb spectra absorption process increases more quickly than the Kerr gain, at
obtained by solving the LLE are given in Fig. 3(d). Since exper- some point, comb generation is then totally prohibited for any
imental demonstration65–68 already indicated loss levels smaller pump power level. To sum up, we observed a lifetime cut-off
than 3 dB∕cm and according to previous experiments carried with respect to each waveguide configuration. Regarding the
out on similar sub-wavelength waveguide structures, a linear main case corresponding to a propagation loss of 2 dB∕cm,
waveguide loss level of 2 dB∕cm was considered here. The the cut-off lifetime was estimated to be around 220 ps. The
considered radius is the same as the one of the reference rib situation could obviously be eased by lowering the linear loss.
waveguide, i.e., 100 μm. To overcome the effect of the loss For instance, for propagation losses of 0.5 dB∕cm, the cut-off
and enable the generation of a comb state, the pump power is lifetime increases to 420 ps.
slightly increased to 200 mW. Note that critical coupling is As shown in Fig. 3(b), the accumulated wavevector mismatch
always considered. The frequency detuning for achieving the from the deep-blue anomalous region is soon compensated for

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

by the gray normal-dispersion region, which gives the first dispersion in a large wavelength range of up to ∼1000 nm,
Cherenkov radiation. The remaining part of this gray region, while small areas of each zone are achieved. The filling factor
however, is compensated for again by the right anomalous region of Secs. 1 and 2 are fixed at L1 ∕p ¼ 0.8 and L2 ∕p ¼ 0.5. The
(purple), which leads to the generation of the second Cherenkov frequency detuning for achieving the final single-soliton comb
radiation. These results evidence the potential of SAB wave- is 1.272 GHz from the initialization. Other parameters are the
guides for flattening the overall waveguide dispersion profiles same as those previously mentioned, i.e., the loss, the carrier
and forcing the wavevector mismatch to intersect the Δβ ¼ 0 axis lifetime, the radius, and the pump power are 2 dB∕cm, 50 ps,
twice without much deviation from it, which is difficult to achieve 100 μm, and 200 mW, respectively. As shown in Fig. 4(b), the
with traditional step-index waveguides of strip or rib shapes. wavevector mismatch Δβ is tremendously flattened near the axis
To improve the performance, a trilevel case (w2 ≠ 0) is con- from 2.4 to 3.2 μm wavelengths, with again two intersection
sidered to locally engineer the dispersion with an additional points and small ripples across and near the zero Δβ axis. This
degree of freedom. As shown in Fig. 4(a), by varying the width flattened dispersion profile assists us in achieving, as shown in
of these three sections, we open a window of low-anomalous Fig. 4(c), a comb spectrum that gives a 20/30-dB bandwidth of

Fig. 4 (a) Chromatic dispersion parameter D of four bilevel configurations with different param-
eters and based on the subwavelength silicon waveguides shown in Fig. 3(a). The silicon height is
t ¼ 340 nm. (b) and (c) The calculated wavevector mismatch and single-soliton comb spectra
corresponding to the working point in (a) and that from Fig. 1 (red color/reference Si rib wave-
guide). The near-bottom spectra are the corresponding primary comb lines. (d) and (e) The cor-
responding comb generation process of the comb in deep blue. The two predicted Cherenkov
radiation points are marked by the dashed circles or the white labels. The frequency detuning
for achieving the final single-soliton comb is 1.272 GHz from the initialization.

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

44/48 THz, which represents a great improvement compared mixing processes are observed successively with the increase
with the optimal reference microring structure (red color). The of the intracavity power. The overall time range is considered
two Cherenkov radiations can be distinguished from the smooth from nanoseconds to microseconds to confirm the stability of
background. As visible, the primary comb lines of the SAB case the generation of the Kerr frequency combs.
(blue color), on the bottom part of Fig. 4(c), are much wider than
that of the reference case. The evolution of the temporal and
frequency patterns of the comb generation of the SAB wave- Acknowledgments
guide comb with respect to point 2 is also presented in We appreciate the help from the French national research agency
Figs. 4(d) and 4(e), respectively. (BRIGHT ANR project). The authors declare no competing
As already stated before, the loss, the carrier lifetime, and interests.
the pump power of the reference comb case were fixed at
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43. A. B. Matsko et al., “Mode-locked Kerr frequency combs,” Opt. Jianhao Zhang is currently a post-doctoral researcher with the Centre for
Commun. 36(15), 2845–2847 (2011). Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (C2N) at Paris-Saclay University/
44. S. Coen et al., “Universal scaling laws of Kerr frequency combs,” CNRS, France. He received his PhD from Paris-Sud University and
Opt. Lett. 38(11), 1790–1792 (2013). Zhejiang University in 2019. His research interests include nonlinear op-
45. S. Coen et al., “Modeling of octave-spanning Kerr frequency tics, cavity opto-mechanics, integrated lasers, as well as interdisciplinary
combs using a generalized mean-field Lugiato–Lefever model,” research merging optics and other research fields, within the scope of
Opt. Lett. 38(1), 37–39 (2013). silicon photonics.
46. T. Hansson et al., “Dynamics of microresonator frequency comb
generation: models and stability,” Nanophotonics 5(2), 231–243 Vincent Pelgrin received his master’s degree in fundamental physics
(2016). and application majoring photonics from Rennes 1 University in France
47. M. R. E. Lamont et al., “Route to stabilized ultrabroadband micro- in 2019. He is currently a PhD student in the Center for Nanoscience
resonator-based frequency combs,” Opt. Express 38(18), 3478– and Nanotechnology (C2N) at Paris Saclay University and in the Depart-
3481 (2013). ment of Electronics and Nanoengineering at Aalto University, Finland.

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 Zhang et al.: Stretching the spectra of Kerr frequency combs with self-adaptive boundary silicon waveguides

His research topic mainly focuses on hybrid integrated silicon photonics Eric Cassan was awarded a PhD in 2000, was successively associate
using 2D materials to enhance nonlinear light–matter interaction. professor and then full professor at Paris-Sud University. Since 2016, he
has carried out his research themes within the Centre for Nanosciences
Carlos Alonso-Ramos received his PhD in 2014 from the Universidad and Nanotechnologies at Université Paris-Saclay/CNRS. The latest
de Málaga, Spain, on the development of high-performance integrated orientations of his work concern the realization of integrated functions
photonic circuits for chip interconnects and next generation coherent exploiting nonlinear optical effects for the realization of light sources.
transceivers. He is currently a CNRS Researcher with the Center for He is the author of about 270 articles and invited oral communications
Nanoscience and Nanotechnology (C2N) in Palaiseau, France. His re- at international conferences.
search interest includes the development of Si photonics devices and
circuits in the near- and mid-infrared for applications in telecom, sensing, Biographies of the other authors are not available.
and quantum.

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