Abstract
We demonstrate a novel high-accuracy post-fabrication trimming technique to fine-tune the phase of integrated Mach–Zehnder interferometers, enabling permanent correction of typical fabrication-based phase errors. The effective index change of the optical mode is 0.19 in our measurement, which is approximately an order of magnitude improvement compared to previous work with similar excess optical loss. Our measurement results suggest that a phase accuracy of 0.078 rad was achievable with active feedback control.
Highlights
Silicon photonics is a promising technology for monolithic integration of photonic devices and advanced microelectronic circuits in a single chip
In this paper, we propose a novel technique for high-accuracy post-fabrication phase trimming of silicon waveguides, in this case, within an Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI)
We have demonstrated a practical and accurate post-fabrication trimming technique for silicon integrated MZI devices
Summary
Silicon photonics is a promising technology for monolithic integration of photonic devices and advanced microelectronic circuits in a single chip. Surface amorphization and ablation of silicon waveguides with a femtosecond laser were demonstrated to trim the refractive index [10] It is a rather destructive method with very limited accuracy. In previous work by Ackert et al [11], they attempted to apply boron and silicon ion implantation in the silicon waveguide and subsequently trim the refractive index by the thermal annealing process. In order to precisely trim the optical phase in the MZI arm, we use a scanning laser to sequentially anneal sections of the implanted waveguide. The optical phase is controlled accurately by the length of the implanted waveguide that is annealed in each step by the scanning laser This technique can be applied to accurately trim the resonance wavelength of ring resonators
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