Silicon Photonic Crystal Waveguide Research Articles

Deterministic tuning of slow-light in photonic-crystal waveguides through the C and L bands by atomic layer deposition

We demonstrate digital tuning of the slow-light regime in silicon photonic-crystal waveguides by performing atomic layer deposition of hafnium oxide. The high group-index regime was deterministically controlled (redshift of 140±10 pm per atomic layer) without affecting the group-velocity dispersion and third-order dispersion. Additionally, differential tuning of 110±30 pm per monolayer of the slow-light TE-like and TM-like modes was observed. This passive postfabrication process has potential applications including the tuning of chip-scale optical interconnects, as well as Raman and parametric amplification.

Slow Light Enhanced Nonlinear Optics in Silicon Photonic Crystal Waveguides

We present a summary of our recent experiments showing how various nonlinear phenomena are enhanced due to slow light in silicon photonic crystal waveguides. These nonlinear processes include self-phase modulation (SPM), two-photon absorption (TPA), free-carrier related effects, and third-harmonic generation, the last effect being associated with the emission of green visible light, an unexpected phenomenon in silicon. These demonstrations exploit photonic crystal waveguides engineered to support slow modes with a range of group velocities as low as c/50 and, more crucially, with significantly reduced dispersion. We discuss the potential of slow light in photonic crystals for realizing compact nonlinear devices operating at low powers. In particular, we consider the application of SPM to all-optical regeneration, and experimentally investigate an original approach, where enhanced TPA and free-carrier absorption are used for partial regeneration of a high-bit rate data stream (10 Gb/s).

Ultraefficient control of light transmission through photonic potential barrier modulation

An optical modulation mechanism based on dynamically shifting the photonic potential barrier of a photonic crystal waveguide is presented. The modulation mechanism is modeled by the one-dimensional quantum tunneling effect using the Schrödinger equation. The calculation results show that the modulation efficiency is 200 times higher than that of the conventional Mach-Zehnder modulator. Based on this innovative concept, an engineering design of an ultracompact silicon photonic crystal waveguide modulator with 10 microm x 5 microm footprint is presented.

Silicon nitride membrane photonics

We propose a concept for realizing large area nanophotonic circuits in a silicon nitride membrane. Light is coupled into the membrane using a novel metallic photonic crystal grating coupler. A coupling loss of 5.5 dB is predicted for TE polarized light at 1550 nm. Waveguiding at telecoms wavelengths is achieved by using low loss photonic crystal defect waveguides. The propagation losses of the photonic crystal waveguides are estimated at 8.6 dB mm−1, comparable to early silicon photonic crystal waveguides. Using the proposed approach, photonic circuits can be fabricated using a single lithography and etching step. Thus the design scheme shows a route to low-cost fabrication.

Novel Biosensor Based on Photonic Crystal Nano-Ring Resonator

We investigated the feasibility of biosensing for a novel two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystal (PC) based nano-ring resonator by computational study. The photonic crystal is composed of periodic hexagonal hole array on a silicon plate. A hexagonal nano-ring resonator is arranged in between two silicon PC waveguides. This PC nano-ring resonator is packaged in a fluidic channel, while analytes flow via a sensing hole will be trapped. Due to the absorbed analytes in a particular hole along the hexagonal ring, the output resonant peak wavelength shifts to longer wavelength region. The sensitivity of various holes has been studied.

Investigation of slow light enhanced nonlinear transmission for all-optical regeneration in silicon photonic crystal waveguides at 10 Gbit/s

We demonstrate bit error rate improvement, corroborated by eye diagram measurements, of a (10 MHz) amplitude distorted 10 Gbit/s data signal in silicon photonic crystal waveguides. This demonstration exploits a power clamping nonlinear transfer function, provided by slow light enhancement of nonlinear absorption in these waveguides.

Green light emission in silicon through slow-light enhanced third-harmonic generation in photonic-crystal waveguides

Slow light has attracted significant interest recently as a potential solution for optical delay lines and time-domain optical signal processing1,2. Perhaps even more significant is the possibility of dramatically enhancing nonlinear optical effects3,4 due to the spatial compression of optical energy5,6,7. Two-dimensional silicon photonic-crystal waveguides have proven to be a powerful platform for realizing slow light, being compatible with on-chip integration and offering wide-bandwidth and dispersion-free propagation2. Here, we report the slow-light enhancement of a nonlinear optical process in a two-dimensional silicon photonic-crystal waveguide. We observe visible third-harmonic-generation at a wavelength of 520 nm with only a few watts of peak power, and demonstrate strong third-harmonic-generation enhancement due to the reduced group velocity of the near-infrared pump signal. This demonstrates yet another unexpected nonlinear function realized in a CMOS-compatible silicon waveguide.

Enhanced spontaneous Raman scattering in silicon photonic crystal waveguides on insulator

We study the spontaneous Raman scattering in a W1 photonic crystal waveguide on silicon-on-insulator where the lower silica cladding remains. Despite the vertical asymmetry that exists in such a waveguide, we numerically and experimentally show that the propagation losses at the pump and the Stokes wavelengths remain low enough to allow a significant exaltation of the spontaneous Raman scattering. In particular, we observe a reshaping of the Raman spectrum and a more than ten-fold enhancement of the Raman scattering efficiency in a W1 photonic crystal waveguide as compared to a single-mode ridge waveguide.

Slow light enhancement of nonlinear effects in silicon engineered photonic crystal waveguides

We report nonlinear measurements on 80microm silicon photonic crystal waveguides that are designed to support dispersionless slow light with group velocities between c/20 and c/50. By launching picoseconds pulses into the waveguides and comparing their output spectral signatures, we show how self phase modulation induced spectral broadening is enhanced due to slow light. Comparison of the measurements and numerical simulations of the pulse propagation elucidates the contribution of the various effects that determine the output pulse shape and the waveguide transfer function. In particular, both experimental and simulated results highlight the significant role of two photon absorption and free carriers in the silicon waveguides and their reinforcement in the slow light regime.

Electrooptically-Active Slow-Light-Enhanced Silicon Slot Photonic Crystal Waveguides

An electrooptically-active 80-nm-slot silicon photonic crystal waveguide is experimentally demonstrated. The index perturbation enhancement of 30 times is demonstrated in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration. The second enhancement factor is the energy confinement within the slot region of the photonic crystal waveguide. The combined effect provides good potential for sensor applications.

Observation of spontaneous Raman scattering in silicon slow-light photonic crystal waveguides

We report on the observation of spontaneous Raman scattering in silicon photonic crystal waveguides. Continuous-wave measurements of both forward scattered and backscattered Stokes emissions are reported in single line-defect waveguides in hexagonal lattice photonic crystal silicon membranes. By utilizing the Bragg gap edge dispersion of the TM-like mode for pump enhancement and the TE-like fundamental mode onset for Stokes enhancement, the spontaneous Raman scattering coefficient was observed to increase by up to six times in the region of slow group velocity. The results show explicit nonlinear enhancement in a silicon photonic crystal slow-light waveguide device.

Silica-embedded silicon photonic crystal waveguides

We report on the fabrication and characterization of silicon photonic crystal waveguides completely embedded in silica. These waveguides offer a robust alternative to air-membranes and are fully compatible with monolithic integration. Despite the reduced refractive index contrast compared to the air-membranes, these waveguides offer a considerable operating range of approximately 10 nm in the 1550 nm window. While the reduced index contrast weakens the perturbations due to surface roughness, we measure losses of 35 +/- 3dB/cm compared to 12 +/- 3 dB/cm for nominally identical air-membranes. Numerical analysis reveals that the difference in loss results from the different mode distribution and group index of the respective waveguide modes. Radius disorder is used as a fitting parameter in the numerical simulations with the best fits found for disorder levels of 1.4 - 1.7 nm RMS, which attest to the high quality of our structures.

실리콘/폴리머 물질 기반의 하이브리드 광 결정 광변조기 설계

실리콘과 전광 고분자 물질을 기반으로 한 새로운 광 결정 광변조기를 제안하고, 설계 및 검증을 수행하였다. 이는 실리콘 물질로 된 광 결정 도파로의 중심에 전광 고분자 물질로 된 슬롯 형태의 도파로를 삽입한 구조로 구성된다. 좁은 폭의 전광 고분자 슬롯도파로를 진행하는 광 신호는 주변의 광 결정 구조에 의해 매우 낮은 군속도를 갖게 될 뿐만 아니라, 전광 고분자 내로의 강한 광학적 구속력을 갖게 되어 광-물질 간의 활발한 상호작용과 매우 높은 전기-광학적 효과를 얻을 수 있다. The design and analysis of a novel photonic crystal electro-optic modulator are presented in this paper. The device incorporates an electro-optic (EO) polymer slot waveguide into the center of a silicon photonic crystal waveguide. In this device, strong optical confinement in the EO polymer core and small group velocity from the photonic crystal structure provide a surprise enhancement of the EO effect.

High-speed low-voltage electro-optic modulator with a polymer-infiltrated silicon photonic crystal waveguide

A novel electro-optic silicon-based modulator with a bandwidth of 78GHz, a drive voltage amplitude of 1V and a length of only 80 microm is proposed. Such record data allow 100Gbit/s transmission and can be achieved by exploiting a combination of several physical effects. First, we rely on the fast and strong nonlinearities of polymers infiltrated into silicon, rather than on the slower free-carrier effect in silicon. Second, we use a Mach-Zehnder interferometer with slotted slow-light waveguides for minimizing the modulator length, but nonetheless providing a long interaction time for modulation field and optical mode. Third, with this short modulator length we avoid bandwidth limitations by RC time constants. The slow-light waveguides are based on a photonic crystal. A polymer-filled narrow slot in the waveguide center forms the interaction region, where both the optical mode and the microwave modulation field are strongly confined to. The waveguides are designed to have a low optical group velocity and negligible dispersion over a 1THz bandwidth. With an adiabatic taper we significantly enhance the coupling to the slow light mode. The feasibility of broadband slow-light transmission and efficient taper coupling has been previously demonstrated by us with calculations and microwave model experiments, where fabrication-induced disorder of the photonic crystal was taken into account.

High speed silicon photonic crystal waveguide modulator for low voltage operation

A high speed compact silicon modulator is experimentally demonstrated to work at a low driving voltage desirable for on-chip applications. As carrier injection is the only practical option for optical modulation in silicon, a lower limit of current density (∼104A∕cm2) exists for achieving gigahertz modulation in the p-i-n diode configuration. Exploiting the slow group velocity of light in photonic crystal waveguides, the interaction length of this Mach-Zehnder interferometer-type silicon modulator is reduced significantly compared to conventional modulators. The required high current density is achieved with a low voltage (2V) by scaling down the interaction length to 80μm.

Tunable Optical Notch Filter Realized by Shifting the Photonic Bandgap in a Silicon Photonic Crystal Line-Defect Waveguide

A tunable optical notch filter was realized by thermally shifting the TM-like (the light's electric field perpendicular to the substrate) bandgap of a silicon photonic crystal slab W1 line-defect waveguide with silica cladding. This device is compact-its footprint is 340times16 mum <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">2</sup> , excluding the electrode pads. The 3-dB bandwidth of the device was about 5 nm, and the extinction ratio at the center wavelength was as high as 40 dB. A maximum center wavelength shift of 17.9 nm was attained at a heating power of 0.7W, with a tuning efficiency of 25.5 nm/W. The tuning response time was less than 100 mus

Discovery of a novel silicon photonic crystal waveguide modulator

Discovery of a novel silicon photonic crystal waveguide modulator

Multimode interference effect and self-imaging principle in two-dimensional silicon photonic crystal waveguides for terahertz waves

Applicability of multimode interference effect and self-imaging principle for terahertz waves in two-dimensional silicon photonic crystal waveguides are investigated by modeling and computation. The results show that the multimode interference effect and the self-imaging principle are applicable for terahertz waves. As an example, a splitter and a filter for terahertz waves have been proposed, calculated and analyzed by finite-difference time-domain method based on the multimode interference effect and the self-imaging principle.

80 - micron interaction length silicon photonic crystal waveguide modulator

An ultracompact silicon electro-optic modulator was experimentally demonstrated based on silicon photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides for the first time to our knowledge. Modulation operation was demonstrated by carrier injection into an 80μm-long silicon PhC waveguide of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure. The π phase shift driving current, Iπ, across the active region is as low as 0.15mA, which is equivalent to a Vπ of 7.5mV when a 50Ω impedance-matched structure is applied. The modulation depth is 92% operating at 1567nm.

Active control of slow light on a chip with photonic crystal waveguides

It is known that light can be slowed down in dispersive materials near resonances. Dramatic reduction of the light group velocity-and even bringing light pulses to a complete halt-has been demonstrated recently in various atomic and solid state systems, where the material absorption is cancelled via quantum optical coherent effects. Exploitation of slow light phenomena has potential for applications ranging from all-optical storage to all-optical switching. Existing schemes, however, are restricted to the narrow frequency range of the material resonance, which limits the operation frequency, maximum data rate and storage capacity. Moreover, the implementation of external lasers, low pressures and/or low temperatures prevents miniaturization and hinders practical applications. Here we experimentally demonstrate an over 300-fold reduction of the group velocity on a silicon chip via an ultra-compact photonic integrated circuit using low-loss silicon photonic crystal waveguides that can support an optical mode with a submicrometre cross-section. In addition, we show fast (approximately 100 ns) and efficient (2 mW electric power) active control of the group velocity by localized heating of the photonic crystal waveguide with an integrated micro-heater.