Spontaneous and stimulated Raman scattering in planar silicon waveguides

Raman scattering in planar silicon on insulator (SOI) waveguides with 2 mu m width, 220 nm height and 2 cm length is investigated. A cw Nd:YAP laser at 1340.6 nm with 7 GHz FWHM spectral width is used as the pump source. A lensed fiber of 2.5 mu m focus diameter is used to couple the pump laser into the waveguide. The coupling efficiency is estimated to be around 10%. Spontaneous Raman scattering is observed with as low as 2.5 mW pump power inside the waveguide. The spontaneous Raman spectrum is measured by an optical spectrum analyzer. The first order Raman peak is measured at around 1441.4 nm corresponding to a Raman shift of 15.6 THz, while the FWHM of Raman spectrum is measured as around 100 GHz. Maximum Raman output of around 90 pW is obtained by around 22 mW pump. The stimulated Raman gain coefficient is estimated as around 56 cm/GW from the relationship between spontaneous Raman output power and pump power. A temperature dependence of Raman frequency shift of about 0.6 GHz/K is measured. The spontaneous anti-Stokes Raman scattering output peak at 1253 nm is also observed with around 35 mW pump. Stimulated Raman amplification measurement is carried out with a SLED white light source as probe signal. With 35 mW pump power, around 0.6 dB gain has been determined with both pump and probe being TE polarized.