Abstract
In this work, we demonstrate the fabrication of single mode optical waveguides in silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) with a high refractive index n = 1.578 on silica (SiO2), exhibiting an index contrast of Δn = 8.2%. Silicon oxycarbide layers were deposited by reactive RF magnetron sputtering of a SiC target in a controlled process of argon and oxygen gases. The optical properties of SiOC film were measured with spectroscopic ellipsometry in the near-infrared range and the acquired refractive indices of the film exhibit anisotropy on the order of 10−2. The structure of the SiOC films is investigated with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The channel waveguides in SiOC are buried in SiO2 (n = 1.444) and defined with UV photolithography and reactive ion etching techniques. Propagation losses of about 4 dB/cm for both TE and TM polarizations at telecommunication wavelength 1550 nm are estimated with cut-back technique. Results indicate the potential of silicon oxycarbide for guided wave applications.
Highlights
Materials offering refractive index tunability and low absorption are extremely useful for realizing optical integrated devices
Films with reactive RF magnetron sputtering and showed that, under different deposition conditions, the refractive index n can be varied from 1.41 to 1.85 at wavelength λ = 1550 nm, while the extinction coefficient k is below 10−4 above λ = 1000 nm [14]
We demonstrate the fabrication of silicon oxycarbide optical waveguides with reactive RF magnetron sputtering
Summary
Materials offering refractive index tunability and low absorption are extremely useful for realizing optical integrated devices. We have demonstrated the synthesis of SiOC films with reactive RF magnetron sputtering and showed that, under different deposition conditions, the refractive index n can be varied from 1.41 to 1.85 at wavelength λ = 1550 nm, while the extinction coefficient k is below 10−4 above λ = 1000 nm [14]. The low extinction coefficient k of SiOC films indicates the suitability of this material for fabrication of optical waveguides. We demonstrate the fabrication of silicon oxycarbide optical waveguides with reactive RF magnetron sputtering. The paper is organized as follows: Section 2 explains deposition and characterization techniques used to grow and study the properties of SiOC films (Section 2.1), and the fabrication process and the measurement setup for SiOC optical waveguides (Section 2.2).
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