Spontaneous parametric fluorescence in SOI integrated micoresonators

Four-wave mixing can be stimulated or occur spontaneously: the latter effect, also known as parametric fluorescence, can be explained only in the framework of a quantum theory of light, and it is at the basis of many protocols to generate nonclassical states of the electromagnetic field. In this work we report on our experimental study of spontaneous four wave mixing in microring resonators and photonic crystal molecules integrated on a silicon on insulator platform. We find that both structures are able to generate signal and idler beams in the telecom band, at rates of millions of photons per second, under sub-mW pumping. By comparing the experiments on the two structures we find that the photonic molecule is an order of magnitude more efficient than the ring resonator, due to the reduced mode volume of the individual resonators. © 2013 SPIE.