title: Mechanical Kerr nonlinearities due to bipolar optical forces between deformable silicon waveguides.
abstract: We use an analytical method based on the perturbation of effective index at fixed frequency to calculate optical forces between silicon waveguides. We use the method to investigate the mechanical Kerr effect in a coupled-waveguide system with bipolar forces. We find that a positive mechanical Kerr coefficient results from either an attractive or repulsive force. An enhanced mechanical Kerr coefficient several orders of magnitude larger than the intrinsic Kerr coefficient is obtained in waveguides for which the optical mode approaches the air light line, given appropriate design of the waveguide dimensions.
authors.affiliation: Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical Engineering, University of Southern California, Powell Hall of Engineering, 3737 Watt Way, Los Angeles, California 90089-0271, USA. jingm@usc.edu
authors.forename: Jing
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.forename: Michelle L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Povinelli