Semiconductor hollow optical waveguides formed by omni-directional reflectors

In this study, a hollow optical waveguide with omni-directional reflectors in silicon-based materials was design, fabricated and characterized. By using dry etching technique, plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition for Si/SiO2 thin films and covering another wafer with omni-directional reflector together, the waveguides can be formed with an air core of 1.2microm x 1.3microm. A uniform propagation loss of the waveguide to be around 1.7dB/cm for C+L band was found for the TE and TM modes. Polarization-independent hollow optical waveguides were obtained with the hollow waveguide structure.