All-optical quantization scheme by slicing the supercontinuum in a chalcogenide horizontal slot waveguide

In this paper, we propose an integratable spectral quantization scheme for all-optical analog-to-digital conversion (AOADC) by slicing the supercontinuum, which is generated in a chalcogenide (As₂S₃) horizontal slot waveguide. The numerical simulation results show that a 4-bit quantization resolution is successfully achieved along with a signal-to-noise ratio of 23.96 dB and an effective number of bit (ENOB) of 3.98 bit. The required As₂S₃ waveguide length and input peak power are only 1.5 cm and 900 mW, respectively, owing to the high nonlinear coefficient of 115.8 W^-1/m. It is believed that this proposed scheme can find important applications in the photonic integratable AOADC with low power consumption.