Enhanced raman amplification and lasing in silicon-based photonic crystals

A device for generating a laser beam, comprising:

• a photonic crystal made from silicon having air-holes forming a pair of optically coupled cavities, whose geometries are substantially identical to each other, wherein the cavities are defined to cause a frequency-splitting difference between a frequency of pump light and a frequency of Stokes light to correspond to an optical phonon frequency in silicon through Raman scattering.

A device for generating a laser beam, comprising:

• a layer of photonic crystal having a lattice of air-holes;
• at least one cavity formed by defects in the lattice of air-holes, the cavity having a surface area on a surface of the layer, wherein dimensions of the surface area are in several micro-meter ranges, and
• wherein the cavity outputs Stokes light in response to pump light through Raman scattering.

A method of manufacturing a laser device, comprising:

• forming a layer of silicon;
• and
• etching the silicon layer to form photonic crystal having a lattice of air-holes with defects that form an optical waveguide having a cross-sectional area whose dimensions are in sub-wavelength ranges, wherein the cross-sectional area is perpendicular to the propagation direction of light in the waveguide, and wherein the waveguide receives pump light and outputs Stokes light through Raman scattering.

A method for manufacturing a laser device, comprising:

• forming a layer of silicon;
• and
• etching the silicon layer to form a photonic crystal having air-holes and to form a pair of optically coupled cavities, whose geometries are substantially identical to each other, wherein the cavities are defined to cause a frequency-splitting difference between a frequency of pump light and a frequency of Stokes light to correspond to an optical phonon frequency in silicon through Raman scattering.