SiC Smart Photonic Waveguide Device for Data Processing

The ultrafast non-linear optical Kerr switch with Si-QD doped in a-SiC (a-SiC:Si-QD) micro-ring resonator is demonstrated. The optical non-linearity of a-SiC can be significantly enhanced due to the enlarged oscillation strength of localized excitons in the Si-QD. The non-linear refractive index and TPA coefficient of a-SiC:Si-QD at 800 nm obtained from Z-scan measurements are 1.83 x 10(-11) cm(2)/W and 4.6 x 10(-6) cm/W, respectively. Although the TPA effect is severed at 800 nm, it can be significantly suppressed by setting the operation wavelength at 1550 nm due to the small photon energy. Such a property is very important to analyze the non-linear Kerr switch at telecommunication wavelengths without interfering with the TPA and FCA. By injecting a pump-pulsed laser with peak power of 3 W into the a-SiC:SiQD micro-ring resonator at resonance condition, the transmission spectrum is dynamically red-shifted to 0.07 nm due to the non-linear Kerr effect. By properly setting the probe wavelength at on-resonance and off-resonance of the a-SiC:Si-QD micro-ring resonator, the probe beam can be directly and inversely modulated by the injected pump source. Furthermore, the all-optical non-linear Kerr switch delivering NRZ-OOK data format with bit-rate of 12 Gbit/s has been successfully demonstrated by using the a-SiC:Si-QD micro-ring resonator.