Optical push broom effect by a moving refractive index front in a silicon Bragg waveguide

Journal
Scientific reports  
Volume
16
Issue
1
Article Number
3050
Citation
Scientific Reports 16 (1): 3050 (2026)
Publisher DOI
10.1038/s41598-026-36302-x
Scopus ID
2-s2.0-105028498601
Publisher
Nature Research
Here we report the first experimental demonstration of signal trapping by a refractive index front in a silicon waveguide with a periodic perturbation, the so-called optical push broom effect. The refractive index front generated by a fast pump pulse captures and confines the energy of a CW signal propagating with smaller group velocity near to the band gap of a Bragg grating introduced in the waveguide. The energy of the CW signal is shifted in frequency, accelerated to the front velocity and thus accumulated inside the front. In the experiment a 2 ps free carrier front was generated via two photon absorption of the pump in the silicon waveguide. It collects approximately a 30 ps long packet of the CW signal inside it. The presented effect can be utilized to compress signals in time and space.
Subjects
Nonlinear pulse propagation
Optical push broom
Signal trapping
Silicon waveguide
DDC Class
530: Physics
621.3: Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering
Lizenz
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Publication version
publishedVersion
Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Name

s41598-026-36302-x.pdf

Type

Main Article

Size

3.32 MB

Format

Adobe PDF