Two-photon-absorption photodiodes in Si photonic-crystal slow-light waveguides

We demonstrate two-photon-absorption photodiodes in Si photonic-crystal waveguides, which shows wideband low-dispersion slow light. The device was fabricated on SOI substrate by CMOS-compatible process. The responsivity was improved by higher group indexes of slow light up to 0.052 A/W for pulses at wavelengths around 1550 nm with a 2.7 ps width and sub-watt peak powers. We applied this device to an optical correlator and dispersion detector. In the former, the correlation waveforms of 0.7−10 ps pulses were observed with small errors. In the latter, photocurrents inversely proportional to the pulse width were detected.