Forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in silicon microring resonators

Abstract: Stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) has been demonstrated in silicon waveguides in recent years. However, due to the weak interaction between photons and acoustic phonons in these waveguides, long interaction length is typically necessary. Here, we experimentally show that forward stimulated Brillouin scattering in a short interaction length of a 20 um radius silicon microring resonator could give 1.2 dB peak gain at only 10mW coupled pump power. The experimental results demonstrate that both optical and acoustic modes can have efficient interaction in a short interaction length. The observed Brillouin gain varies with coupled pump power in good agreement with theoretical prediction. The work shows the potential of SBS in silicon for moving the demonstrated fiber SBS applications to the integrated silicon photonics platform.