Self-steepening (SS) is enhanced by slow-light effects in photonic crystal waveguides (PhCWs), with coefficients as large as hundreds of femtoseconds, and it plays an important role in temporally compressed solitons with narrow widths. Here, we investigate the soliton evolution in silicon PhCWs through experiments and numerical simulations; the simulated results agree well with the experimental measurements and help in revealing the physical mechanism of high-order soliton evolution. The dual opposite effects of giant anomalous SS on temporal soliton compression are demonstrated for the first time, i.e., the SS weakens or improves the compression competing with the effects of third-order dispersion (TOD) through two different physical mechanisms. It is also found that SS flattens or steepens the pulse leading edge depending on the strength of the positive TOD perturbation. These results promote the understanding of high-order solitons and can help with the design of suitable dispersion engineered silicon waveguides for superior on-chip temporal pulse compression for optical interconnects, data processing, and microwave photonics.

中文翻译：

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硅光子晶体波导中的巨大异常自陡峭和时间孤子压缩

光子晶体波导 (PhCW) 中的慢光效应增强了自陡化 (SS)，其系数高达数百飞秒，并且在时间压缩的窄孤子中起着重要作用。在这里，我们通过实验和数值模拟研究了硅 PhCW 中的孤子演化；模拟结果与实验测量结果吻合良好，有助于揭示高阶孤子演化的物理机制。首次证明了巨型异常 SS 对时间孤子压缩的双重相反效应，即 SS 通过两种不同的物理机制削弱或改善了与三阶色散 (TOD) 效应竞争的压缩。还发现 SS 根据正 TOD 扰动的强度使脉冲前沿变平或变陡。这些结果促进了对高阶孤子的理解，并有助于设计合适的色散工程硅波导，为光学互连、数据处理和微波光子提供卓越的片上时间脉冲压缩。