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Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Silica-embedded silicon photonic crystal waveguides
T P White1, L O'Faolain, Juntao Li
1School of Physics and Astronomy, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Fife, UK. tom.white@st-andrews.ac.uk
Optics Express
|October 15, 2008
Summary
Silicon photonic crystal waveguides embedded in silica offer a robust alternative to air-membrane designs. While exhibiting higher losses, these waveguides demonstrate compatibility with monolithic integration and a 10 nm operating range.
Area of Science:
- Photonics
- Materials Science
- Optical Engineering
Background:
- Silicon photonic crystal waveguides are crucial for integrated optics.
- Air-membrane designs face challenges in robustness and integration.
- Developing robust, integrable waveguide structures is essential for advancing photonic integrated circuits.
Purpose of the Study:
- To fabricate and characterize silicon photonic crystal waveguides embedded in silica.
- To evaluate their performance as an alternative to air-membrane waveguides.
- To understand the factors contributing to optical losses in these structures.
Main Methods:
- Fabrication of silicon photonic crystal waveguides within a silica matrix.
- Characterization of optical properties, including operating range and propagation loss.
- Numerical analysis using radius disorder as a fitting parameter to simulate losses.
Main Results:
- Successfully fabricated silicon photonic crystal waveguides embedded in silica.
- Achieved a 10 nm operating range around 1550 nm.
- Measured propagation losses of 35 ± 3 dB/cm, higher than air-membrane counterparts (12 ± 3 dB/cm).
- Numerical simulations indicated that mode distribution and group index differences contribute to higher losses.
Conclusions:
- Embedded silicon photonic crystal waveguides provide a robust and monolithically integrable platform.
- Despite higher losses compared to air-membranes, their structural integrity is advantageous.
- The high quality of fabricated structures is confirmed by low disorder levels (1.4–1.7 nm RMS).
