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Dispersive wave control enabled by silicon metamaterial waveguides

The ability to exploit the on-chip nonlinear generation of new frequencies has opened the door to a plethora of applications in fundamental and applied physics. Excitation of dispersive waves is a particularly interesting process that allows efficient nonlinear wavelength conversion by phase-matching of a soliton and waves in the normal dispersion regime. However, controlling the wavelength of dispersive waves in integrated waveguides remains an open challenge, hampering versatile shaping of the nonlinear spectral response. Here, we show that metamaterial silicon waveguides release new degrees of freedom to select the wavelength of dispersive waves. Based on this concept, we experimentally demonstrate excitation of two dispersive waves near 1.55 μm and 7.5 μm allowing ultra-wideband supercontinuum generation, covering most of the silicon transparency window. These results stand as an important milestone for versatile nonlinear frequency generation in silicon chips, with a great potential for applications in sensing, metrology and communications.