Low TPA and free-carrier effects in silicon nanocrystal-based horizontal slot waveguides

We present the characterization of the ultrafast nonlinear dynamics of a CMOS-compatible horizontal-slot waveguide with silicon
nanocrystals. Results are compared to strip silicon waveguides, and modeled with nonlinear split-step calculations. The extracted parameters show that the slot waveguide has weaker carrier effects and better nonlinear figure-of-merit than the strip waveguides.