Ultra-broadband one-to-two wavelength conversion using low-phase-mismatching four-wave mixing in silicon waveguides

An ultra-broadband wavelength conversion is presented and experimentally demonstrated based on nondegenerate four-wave mixing in silicon waveguides. Two idlers can be generated and their wavelengths can be freely tuned by using two pumps where the first pump is set close to the signal and the second pump is wavelength tunable. Using this scheme, a small phase-mismatch and hence an ultra-broad conversion bandwidth is realized in spite of the waveguide dispersion profile. We show that the experimental demonstrations are consistent with the theoretical estimations. Total conversion bandwidth is estimated to reach > 500 nm and it can provide a feasible approach to realize one-to-two wavelength conversion among different telecommunication bands between 1300 nm and 1800 nm. (C) 2010 Optical Society of America