Transparent amorphous silicon channel waveguides and high-Q resonators using a damascene process

We demonstrate a damascene process for fabricating amorphous silicon (a-Si), single-mode optical channel waveguides and high-Q racetrack resonators. This process is compatible with thermal budget limitations for a-Si phase stability. It offers improved optical transmission and facilitates hydrogen e...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Sun, Rong, Cheng, Jing, Michel, Jurgen, Kimerling, Lionel C.
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Optical Society of America 2013
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/81305
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3913-6189
Description
Summary:We demonstrate a damascene process for fabricating amorphous silicon (a-Si), single-mode optical channel waveguides and high-Q racetrack resonators. This process is compatible with thermal budget limitations for a-Si phase stability. It offers improved optical transmission and facilitates hydrogen encapsulation for process integration of a-Si waveguide cores. At 1550 nm , the average measured transmission loss coefficient is 2.5±0.1 dB/cm for the TE mode, comparable with high-quality single crystalline silicon counterparts. The racetrack resonators have mid- 10[superscript 4] to 10[superscript 5] quality factors (Q) and extinction ratios as high as 25 dB .