On-chip two-octave supercontinuum generation by enhancing self-steepening of optical pulses

Dramatic advances in supercontinuum generation have been made recently using photonic crystal fibers, but it is quite challenging to obtain an octave-spanning supercontinuum on a chip, partially because of strong dispersion in high-index-contrast nonlinear integrated waveguides. We show by simulation that extremely flat and low dispersion can be achieved in silicon nitride slot waveguides over a wavelength band of 500 nm. Different from most of previously reported supercontinua that were generated either by higher-order soliton fission in anomalous dispersion regime or by self-phase modulation in normal dispersion regime, a two-octave supercontinuum from 630 to 2650 nm (360 THz in total) can be generated by enhancing self-steepening in pulse propagation in nearly zero dispersion regime, when an optical shock as short as 3 fs is formed. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America