Soliton fission and supercontinuum generation in silicon waveguides

We show through numerical simulations that silicon waveguides can be used to create a supercontinuum extending over 400 nm by launching femtosecond pulses as higher-order solitons. The physical process behind continuum generation is related to soliton fission, self-phase modulation, and generation of Cherenkov radiation. In contrast with optical fibers, stimulated Raman scattering plays little role. As low-energy (approximately 1 pJ) pulses and short waveguides (<1 cm) are sufficient for continuum generation, the proposed scheme should prove useful for practical applications.