Polarization independent grating in a GaN-on-sapphire photonic integrated circuit

In this work, we report the realization of a polarization-insensitive grating coupler, single-mode waveguide, and ring resonator in the GaN-on-sapphire platform. We provide a detailed demonstration of the material characterization, device simulation, and experimental results. We achieve a grating coupler efficiency of -5.2 dB/coupler with a 1 dB and 3 dB bandwidth of 40 nm and 80 nm, respectively. We measure a single-mode waveguide loss of -6 dB/cm. The losses measured here are the lowest in a GaN-on-sapphire photonic circuit. This demonstration provides opportunities for the development of on-chip linear and non-linear optical processes using the GaN-on-sapphire platform. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of an integrated photonic device using a GaN HEMT stack with 2D electron gas.