Effects of shaded facets on the performance of metal-coated etched diffraction grating demultiplexer

A finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method combined with a periodic boundary condition is used to analyze the diffraction efficiency of an etched diffraction grating (EDG) demultiplexer coated with a metallic film at the backside. The numerical results show that the diffraction loss is mainly due to the scattering effect of shaded facets of a metal-coated grating at both the polarizations. However, the same shaded facets can produce a higher loss for a TM polarization than that for a TE polarization, which induces a higher polarization dependent loss (PDL) of the demultiplexer.     

波导管与谐振腔的边界条件

阐述齐次边界条件Et＝0和Hn＝0在求解波导管和谐振腔中电磁波的重要作用;说明附加边界条件ЭEn/Эn=0和ЭH1/Эn＝0在何种情况下有用。     

Multipole analysis of the radiation from near-field optical probes

We experimentally and theoretically analyze the radiation emitted from subwavelength-sized apertures in near-field optical probes. By decomposing the experimentally obtained radiation patterns into vector spherical waves, we describe the fields in terms of a series of multipole sources. We fit polarization-resolved angular intensity distributions, measured as far as 150 degrees from the normal, with dipole, quadrupole, and octupole radiation. We find that the magnetic and the electric dipole components are dominant but that the interference terms between dipoles and higher-order poles are not negligible. This result can be used as the basis for understanding near-field optical interactions and images.     

Trimming of high-Q-factor silicon ring resonators by electron beam bleaching

We demonstrate a novel position-resolved resonance trimming strategy for silicon ring resonators. Ring resonators are covered with a chromophore-doped guest host polymer cladding. Illumination of the polymer cladding with high-energy electrons causes a bleaching of the chromophore molecules. Bleaching of the chromophores induces a reduction of the polymer refractive index, which can be used to trim the resonance frequency of the ring resonators. A maximum refractive index change of 0.06 and a TM polarization resonance shift of 16.4?nm have been measured. A Q factor of 20,000 before bleaching remains unaltered after the electron beam exposure process.     

Effects of electrodes on performance figures of thin film bulk acoustic resonators

The effects of mechanical losses and elastic properties of the electrodes on the performance figures of a thin film bulk acoustic resonator (FBAR) are analyzed by numerical simulation. Results indicate that the material loss of the electrode has no visible effect on the characterization of the effective electromechanical coupling factor, k(eff)2. The acoustic impedance ratio of the electrode to the piezo-film dominantly determines the behaviors of the k(eff)2 variation with the electrode thickness. The resonance Q value, Q(s), of the FBAR closely relies on the material Q values of film and of electrodes as expected. Besides, the variation of Q(s) versus the thickness of the electrodes crucially depends on the acoustic impedance ratio as well. Especially, three characteristic parameters, i.e., the maximum value of k(eff)2, the sectional mass ratio of the electrode to the piezo film corresponding to the maximum k(eff)2, and the tolerance range of the ratio to keep k(eff)2 near the maximum, are calculated for some typical samples. These results would be useful for optimizing FBAR designs and performances.     

Low-loss germanium strip waveguides on silicon for the mid-infrared

Mid-infrared photonics in silicon needs low-loss integrated waveguides. While monocrystalline germanium waveguides on silicon have been proposed, experimental realization has not been reported. Here we demonstrate a germanium strip waveguide on a silicon substrate. It is designed for single mode transmission of light in transverse magnetic (TM) polarization generated from quantum cascade lasers at a wavelength of 5.8 μm. The propagation losses were measured with the Fabry-Perot resonance method. The lowest achieved propagation loss is 2.5 dB/cm, while the bending loss is measured to be 0.12 dB for a 90° bend with a radius of 115 μm.     

Design and characterization of silicon nanocrystal microgear resonators

We report on the design, optimization and characterization of silicon nanocrystal microgear resonators. We present three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations to optimize the gear geometry and guide our experimental study. We fabricated a series of microgears with varying geometry and compared their photoluminescence spectra to that of a reference microdisk. The microgears exhibited a single dominant mode in the photoluminescence spectrum with quality factors as high as 10³. We further demonstrated the ability to tune the wavelength of the dominant mode by changing the number of gear teeth and thereby selecting a mode with a different azimuthal order.     

Reduction of scattering loss of silicon slot waveguides by RCA smoothing

Because of stronger optical confinement density, silicon slot waveguides tend to have higher scattering loss than normal ridge waveguides with same sidewall roughness. A wet chemical process is found to be highly effective in reducing the surface roughness and scattering loss. A reduction in scattering loss by 10.2 dB/cm for TE and 8.5 dB/cm for TM polarizations has been achieved.     

Silica waveguides on silicon and their application to integrated-optic components

A marriage of optical fibre fabrication technology and LSI microfabrication technology gave birth to fibre-matched silica waveguides on silicon: thick glass layers of high-silica-content glass are deposited on silicon by flame hydrolysis, a method originally developed for fibre preform fabrication. Silica channel waveguides are then formed by photolithographic pattern definition processes followed by reactive ion etching. This high silica (HiS) technology offers the possibility of integrating a number of passive functions on a single silicon chip, as well as the possibility of the hybrid integration of both active and passive devices on silicon. This paper reviews the NTT HiS technology and its application to integrated-optic components such as optical beam splitters, optical switches, wavelength-division multi/demultiplexers and optical frequency-division multi/demultiplexers. The clear and simple waveguide structures produced by the HiS technology make it possible to design and fabricate these components with high precision and excellent reproducibility.     

Tip-based nanoscale selective growth of discrete silicon nanowires by near-field laser illumination

Growth of discrete silicon nanowires is reported with nanoscale location selectivity by employing near-field laser illumination. An uncoated dielectric atomic force microscope (AFM) tip provides a nanometer-scale light source that is sufficiently localized to induce nucleation and subsequent growth of a single nanowire under its optical near-field. Far-field laser-induced heating is additionally supplied to the substrate to both relieve the required near-field light budget and also assist stable epitaxial growth. Specific catalysts are selected for the nanowire growth by non-contact mode AFM imaging. Through real-time monitoring of the deflection of the AFM cantilever during the growth process, the gap between the tip and the sample and hence truly near-field illumination are maintained throughout the growth process. The study shows that tip-based near-field laser illumination could be an effective tool for the direct integration of semiconductor nanowires.     

Amorphous silicon waveguides grown by PECVD on an Indium Tin Oxide buried contact

Low-loss hydrogenated amorphous silicon (α-Si:H) waveguides were realized by plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) on a transparent conductive oxide (TCO) layer which is intended to provide the buried contact in active devices, e.g. switches and modulators. In particular we propose a technological solution to overcome both the strong reduction in optical transmittance due to the very high extinction coefficient of metal contacts and, at the same time, the optical scattering induced by the texturization effect induced in α-Si:H films grown on TCO. The realized waveguides were characterized in terms of propagation losses at 1550 nm and surface roughness. The experimental performances have been compared to those obtained through calculations using an optical simulation package. The results are found to be in agreement with the experimental data.     

Enhancement of the evanescent field using polymer waveguides fabricated by deep UV exposure on mesoporous silicon

Polymer integrated reverse symmetry waveguides on porous silicon substrate fabricated by using deep ultraviolet radiation in poly(methyl methacrylate) are presented. The layer sequence and geometry of the waveguide enable an evanescent field extending more than 3 microm into the upper waveguide or analyte layer, enabling various integrated optical devices where large evanescent fields are required. The presented fabrication technique enables the generation of defined regions where the evanescent field is larger than in the rest of the waveguide. This technology can improve the performance of evanescent-wave-based waveguide devices.     

Impact of two-photon absorption on self-phase modulation in silicon waveguides

We study the effects of two-photon absorption on the self-phase modulation (SPM) process in silicon waveguides while including both free-carrier absorption and free-carrier dispersion. An analytical solution is provided in the case in which the density of generated carriers is relatively low; it is useful for estimating spectral bandwidth of pulses at low repetition rates. The free-carrier effects are studied numerically with emphasis on their role on the nonlinear phase shift and spectral broadening. We also consider how the repetition rate of a pulse train affects the SPM process.     

Propagation characteristics of the silica and silicon subwavelength-diameter hollow wire waveguides

The basic propagation properties of the silica and silicon subwavelength-diameter hollow wire waveguides have been investigated by comparison. It shows that the silica and silicon subwavelength-diameter hollow wire waveguides have some interesting properties, such as enhanced evanescent field in the cladding, enhanced intensity in the hollow core, and large waveguide dispersion. For the different confinement ability, the enhanced field in the hollow core and cladding of the silica subwavelength-diameter hollow wire is much stronger than that of the silicon one for the same size.     

Coupling and crosstalk characteristics of hybrid silicon plasmonic waveguides

In this paper, the design and analysis of an ultracompact coupler based on a hybrid silicon plasmonic waveguide (HSPW) is proposed and its coupling and crosstalk characteristics have been theoretically investigated for the development of optical interconnects that can be realized using well-established complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor-compatible fabrication techniques. To determine the minimum horizontal separation distance and efficient coupling length for the designed coupler, the symmetric and antisymmetric supermodes are obtained and their characteristics are studied at a wavelength of 1.55 μm. Efficient light coupling is exhibited by the HSPW coupler with 75 % of power transfer between the two HSPWs with ultrashort coupling length of 2.14 μm when the separation distance is 50 nm. Further, it is shown that the crosstalk is significantly reduced with the insertion of metallic strip between the two HSPWs for realizing highly dense integrated plasmonic circuits.     

Design and numerical analysis for low birefringence silica on silicon waveguides

A new fabrication technology for three-dimensionally buried silica on silicon optical waveguide based on deep etching and thermal oxidation is presented.Using this method,a silicon layer is left at the side of waveguide.The stress distribution and effective refractive index are calculated by using finite element method and finite different beam propagation method,respectively.The results indicate that the stress of silica on silicon optical waveguide fabricated by this method can be matched in parallel and vertical directions and stress birefringence can be effectively reduced due to the side-silicon layer.     

Generation of single-crystalline domain in nano-scale silicon pillars by near-field short pulsed laser

We observe laser-induced grain morphology change in silicon nanopillars under a transmission electron microscopy (TEM) environment. We couple the TEM with a near-field scanning optical microscopy pulsed laser processing system. This novel combination enables immediate scrutiny on the grain morphologies that the pulsed laser irradiation produces. We find unusual transformation of the tip of the amorphous or polycrystalline silicon pillar into a single crystalline domain via melt-mediated crystallization. On the basis of the three-dimensional finite difference simulation result and the dark field TEM data, we propose that the creation of the distinct single crystalline tip originates from the dominant grain growth initiated at the apex of the non-planar liquid–solid interface. Our microscopic observation provides a fundamental basis for laser-induced conversion of amorphous nanostructures into coarse-grained crystals.