Characterization of the influence of strain on the optical properties of waveguides and microresonators in silicon-on-insulator technology

Abstract

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) technology has become one of the focus platforms for photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The CMOS technology opens the possibility for reliable mass fabrication of cost-effective photonic circuits. Recently there has been a growing interest in direct optical sensing of, for example, temperature, pressure or strain, using microring resonators [1,2]. Taillaert et. al. [3] proposed the use of a microring resonator as a strain gauge. Amemiya et. al. [4] reported on the effect of strain on SOI ring resonators. However, the strong lateral confinement of the light due to the high refractive index contrast in SOI waveguides and its corresponding modal dispersion was not taken into account. To the best of our knowledge, we are the first to present experimental results and understanding of the effects of an applied strain S in the effective index n e in a SOI-PIC.