Waveguide tapering for improved parametric amplification in integrated nonlinear Si3N4 waveguides

Journal article, 2020

In this paper, we propose and numerically investigate waveguide tapering to improve optical parametric amplification in integrated nonlinear Si3N4 circuits. The phase matching condition of parametric amplification changes along the length of uniform Si3N4 waveguides, due to the non-negligible propagation loss, potentially causing peak-gain wavelength shifts of more than 20 nm. By tapering the waveguide width along propagation, we can achieve a 2.5 dB higher maximum parametric gain thanks to the improved phase matching, which can also broaden the amplification bandwidth. Therefore, the length of an optimally tapered Si3N4 waveguide can be 23% shorter than a uniform one in the case of a 3.0 dB/m propagation loss and a single continuous-wavelength pump. Quasi-continuous tapers are efficient to approximate continuous ones and might simplify the fabrication of long tapered nonlinear Si3N4 waveguides, which are promising for optical signal processing and optical communications.