Germanium as a material for stimulated Brillouin scattering in the mid-infrared

In a theoretical design study, we propose buried waveguides made of germanium or alloys of germanium and other group-IV elements as a CMOS-compatible platform for robust, high-gain stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) applications in the mid-infrared regime. To this end, we present numerical calculations for backward-SBS at 4 mu m in germanium waveguides that are buried in silicon nitride. Due to the strong photoelastic anisotropy of germanium, we investigate two different orientations of the germanium crystal with respect to the waveguide's propagation direction and find considerable differences. The acoustic wave equation is solved including crystal anisotropy; acoustic losses are computed from the acoustic mode patterns and previously published material parameters. (C) 2014 Optical Society of America