Widely Tunable Kerr Parametric Oscillation in AlGaAs-on-Insulator Microresonators

Compact, chip-integrated, broadband tunable coherent lasers are essential for diverse applications. Traditional III-V semiconductor lasers are limited by the bandgap of the gain media, restricting their spectral coverage. Alternatively, nonlinear frequency conversion offers another promising approach for broad, flexible light emission [1]. Among various nonlinear processes, microresonator based Kerr optical parametric oscillation (OPO), driven by phase-matched four-wave mixing, has garnered significant attention for efficient broadband tunable frequency generation [1]. Typically, Kerr OPO requires anomalous dispersion to compensate for phase mismatch, while the OPO wavelengths are close to the pump wavelength due to dispersion constraints [2]. By utilizing higher-order dispersion, widely tunable OPOs can be achieved in a weak normal dispersion regime [1]. Among various investigated platforms, AlGaAs-on-insulator (AlGaAsOI) stands out due to its ultra-high nonlinearity and large thermal coefficient, enabling low pump power and continuously tunable OPOs [3]. In this work, we demonstrated a widely tunable Kerr OPO in a dispersion-engineered AlGaAsOI microresonator.