Impact of Free Carriers on Modulational Instability in Silicon-on-insulator Nanowaveguides

Abstract

We have numerically studied the effect of free-carrier-induced loss and dispersion on the modulational instability (MI) gain at low input powers in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowaveguides with normal and anomalous second-order dispersion. We have shown that the free carriers affect the gain spectra even at low input powers. First time we have reported the gain in normal SOI nanowaveguides even in the absence of higher order dispersion parameters, which is due to the interaction of free-carrier-induced dispersion and nonlinearity. The MI gain in an anomalous SOI nanowaveguide vanishes even at a few milliwatt range of input power due to this interaction. We have shown that the gain could be achieved in an anomalous nanowaveguides by reducing the free carrier lifetime.