High efficiency and ultra broadband optical parametric four-wave mixing in chalcogenide-PMMA hybrid microwires.

We present polymer (PMMA) cladded chalcogenide (As(2)Se(3)) hybrid microwires that realize optical parametric four-wave mixing (FWM) with wavelength conversion bandwidth as broad as 190 nm and efficiency as high as 21 dB at peak input power levels as low as 70 mW. This represents 3-30 × increase in bandwidth and 30-50 dB improvement in conversion efficiency over previous demonstrations in tapered and microstructured chalcogenide fibers with the results agreeing well with the simulations. These properties, combined with small foot-print (10 cm length), low loss (<4 dB), ease of fabrication, and the transparency of As(2)Se(3) from near-to-mid-infrared regions make this device a promising building block for lasers, optical instrumentation and optical communication devices.