title: Self-steepening of ultrashort pulses in silicon photonic nanowires.
abstract: We study the frequency dependence of the optical nonlinearity of Si photonic nanowires (Si-PNWs) and its influence on the propagation of ultrashort optical pulses in such nanodevices. Specifically, we show that Si-PNWs present a remarkably large characteristic time associated with self-steepening effects and optical shock formation, namely, more than an order of magnitude larger than in the case of photonic crystal fibers.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University College London, London, UK. n.panoiu@ee.ucl.ac.uk
authors.forename: Nicolae C
authors.initials: NC
authors.lastname: Panoiu
authors.forename: Xiaoping
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Osgood