Nonlinear multimode photonics on-chip

Nonlinear integrated photonics, which takes advantage of the strong field enhancement in integrated waveguides to boost the efficiency of nonlinear effects, has paved the way for the demonstration of cutting-edge applications. These achievements have also been made possible by the impressive progress in material engineering and fabrication processes, which have enabled a remarkable control of the nonlinear dynamics in the waveguides. While researchers initially focused their attention on single-mode devices, in recent years, the exploitation of nonlinear effects in integrated multimode waveguides has attracted significant interest. Indeed, the simultaneous use of different spatial modes of the same multimode waveguide has opened new avenues in the realization of integrated nonlinear processors, thanks to the ability to tune the dispersion profiles of the different modes. In this review, we discuss the most recent advances in nonlinear multimode photonics on-chip. In the first part, we review the use of intermodal nonlinear effects for frequency generation. The use of intermodal nonlinear effects has been extensively reported, for example, for wavelength conversion for telecom applications, generation of photon pair sources for quantum optics and mid-infrared frequency generation. Then, we discuss several demonstrations of nonlinear multimode waveguides used to perform simultaneous multi-channel and multi-functional optical signal processing, such as nonlinear switching and logic operations. Next, supercontinuum generation in nonlinear multimode waveguides will be discussed. Finally, we report the use of high-quality-factor micro-resonators based on multimode waveguides for the realization of compact and widely-tunable integrated Raman lasers and optical frequency comb sources with record-low threshold power.