Mid-infrared silicon-on-sapphire waveguide coupled photonic crystal microcavities

Abstract

We experimentally demonstrate a photonic crystal (PC) microcavity side coupled to a W1.05 photonic crystal waveguide fabricated in silicon-on-sapphire working in mid-IR regime at 3.43 μm. Using a fixed wavelength laser source, propagation characteristics of PC waveguides without microcavity are characterized as a function of lattice constant to determine the light line position, stop gap, and guided mode transmission behavior. The resonance of an L21 PC microcavity coupled to the W1.05 PCW in the guided mode transmission region is then measured by thermal tuning of the cavity resonance across the source wavelength. Resonance quality factor ∼3500 is measured from the temperature dependency curve.