Green light emission in silicon through slow-light enhanced third-harmonic generation in photonic-crystal waveguides

Slow light has attracted significant interest recently as a potential solution for optical delay lines and time-domain optical signal processing(1,2). Perhaps even more significant is the possibility of dramatically enhancing nonlinear optical effects(3,4) due to the spatial compression of optical energy(5-7). Two-dimensional silicon photonic-crystal waveguides have proven to be a powerful platform for realizing slow light, being compatible with on-chip integration and offering wide-bandwidth and dispersion-free propagation(2). Here, we report the slow-light enhancement of a nonlinear optical process in a two-dimensional silicon photonic-crystal waveguide. We observe visible third-harmonic-generation at a wavelength of 520 nm with only a few watts of peak power, and demonstrate strong third-harmonic-generation enhancement due to the reduced group velocity of the near-infrared pump signal. This demonstrates yet another unexpected nonlinear function realized in a CMOS-compatible silicon waveguide.