Micrometer-scale all-optical wavelength converter on silicon

Abstract

We demonstrate a highly integrated micrometer-scale low-power wavelength converter based on the free-carrier dispersion effect in silicon. The conversion is achieved through all-optical modulation of a silicon ring resonator by use of modulated cw control light. The ring resonator has a radius of $5\mu \mathrm{m}$ and a Q of $\sim 10,000$. Both inverted and noninverted modulation are achieved at a bit rate of $0.9\mathrm{Gbits}∕\mathrm{s}$ with a control power of 4.5 mW. The scaling of the required control power for operation with respect to the characteristics of the ring resonator is established.