Proposal and analysis of a hybrid silicon photonic-lithium niobate waveguide for difference frequency generation

Integrated optics devices for nonlinear optics may be made by using unpatterned thin films of a nonlinear crystal such as lithium niobate in conjunction with (for example, bonded to) an easily-patterned material such as silicon or silicon nitride which is commonly used in a silicon photonics platform. We propose and analyze a device for difference-frequency generation in a hybrid waveguide which uses the strongest nonlinear tensor coefficient without ion-exchanging, etching, or periodically-poling lithium niobate, which can considerably simplify the fabrication process.