Four-Wave Mixing-Based Wavelength Conversion and Parametric Amplification in Submicron Silicon Core Fibers

Silicon core fibers represent a versatile platform for all-fiber integrated nonlinear optical applications. This paper describes the state of the art in four-wave mixing-based parametric amplification, and wavelength conversion in silicon fibers that have been tapered to improve the material quality, and engineer the dispersion profile. Fibers with submicron core dimensions have been fabricated, and used to demonstrate high gain parametric amplification in the C-Band, and broadband wavelength conversion extending out to the S-, and L-bands. The potential to use these fibers for all-optical signal processing of 20 Gbit/s data signals has also been demonstrated, with a robust all-fiber coupling scheme presented to improve the efficiency, and practicality of these devices. These results highlight the potential of silicon core fibers for use in nonlinear signal processing within future telecommunication systems.