Efficiency comparison for frequency comb formations in a silicon nitride microring within anomalous dispersion regime

Abstract

The energy efficiency of silicon nitride (SiN) microresonator-based frequency combs is investigated using numerical simulations. The formation of stable frequency comb solutions is numerically studied for a resonator with properly engineered dispersion. The required conditions for the pump power and frequency detuning are analyzed to obtain modulation instability (MI-comb), single soliton, multi-soliton, and soliton-crystal. The performance of the micro combs in terms of the power conversion efficiency, the number of generated comb lines, and line spacing required for different applications of the frequency combs are investigated. Our numerical simulations, based on the parameters of the studied microring, show a configurable multi-wavelength source with up to 23% power conversion efficiency, 200 comb-lines with more than -10dBm power, and switchable line spacing from 100 GHz to 3THz is feasible for different regimes of the proposed frequency comb. The efficiency sensitivity to the input pump power is also studied to find the most energy-efficient operation regime for the multi-wavelength source.