title: Modulation instability in silicon photonic nanowires.
abstract: We demonstrate that strong modulation instability (MI) of copropagating optical waves can be observed in Si photonic nanowires with a length of only a few millimeters. We consider two distinct cases, namely one in which one wave propagates in the normal group-velocity dispersion (GVD) region and the other one experiences anomalous GVD, and a second case in which both waves propagate in the anomalous GVD region. In both cases we show that, for comparable optical powers, the peak value of the MI gain spectrum is 2 to 3 orders of magnitude larger than that achieved in optical fibers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and Applied Mathematics, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA. panoiu@cumsl.msl.columbia.edu
authors.forename: Nicolae C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Panoiu
authors.forename: Xiaogang
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Osgood