Prospects for a waveguide Raman amplifier in porous silicon at 1.5 ?m

Recently, the possibility of light generation and/or amplification in silicon, based on Raman emission, has achieved significant results. However, limitations inherent to the physics of silicon have been pointed out, too. In order to overcome these limitations, a possible option is to consider low dimensional silicon. In this paper, an approach based on Raman scattering in porous silicon is investigated. First, we point out two significant advantages with respect to silicon: the broadening of the spontaneous Raman emission and the tuning of the Stokes shift. Then, we discuss about the prospect of Raman amplifier in porous silicon. Finally the design of a Raman amplifier in porous silicon waveguide is proposed.