Theory of Raman-mediated pulsed amplification in silicon-wire waveguides

We present a comprehensive theoretical study of pulsed stimulated Raman scattering in silicon wires. The pulse dynamics is described by a system of coupled equations, which describes intrinsic waveguide optical losses, phase shift and losses due to free-carriers (FCs) generated through two-photon absorption (TPA), first- and second-order frequency dispersion, self-phase and cross-phase modulation, TPA losses, and the interpulse Raman interaction. Furthermore, the influence of the FCs on the pulse dynamics is incorporated through a rate equation. The corresponding system of equations has then been numerically integrated, and phenomena such as noise-seeded Raman amplification, pulsed Raman amplification, and Raman-mediated pulse interaction have been described.