Dorian Sanchez

Silicon-Based Photonic Integration Beyond the Telecommunication Wavelength Range

In this paper we discuss silicon-based photonic integrated circuit technology for applications beyond the telecommunication wavelength range. Silicon-on-insulator and germanium-on-silicon passive waveguide circuits are described, as well as the integration of III-V semiconductors, IV-VI colloidal nanoparticles and GeSn alloys on these circuits for increasing the functionality. The strong nonlinearity of silicon combined with the low nonlinear absorption in the mid-infrared is exploited to generate picosecond pulse based supercontinuum sources, optical parametric oscillators and wavelength translators connecting the telecommunication wavelength range and the mid-infrared.

Mid-IR GaSb-Based Bipolar Cascade VCSELs

We design, fabricate, and study GaSb-based bipolar cascade vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) for laser emission of around 2.3 μm. An electrically coupled two-stage design shows high-temperature continuous wave (CW) operation and an approximately one-order-of-magnitude increase of CW output power at 30°C as compared with single-stage VCSELs.

Silicon-on-insulator shortwave infrared wavelength meter with integrated photodiodes for on-chip laser monitoring.

This paper demonstrates a very compact wavelength meter for on-chip laser monitoring in the shortwave infrared wavelength range based on an optimized arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) filter with an integrated photodiode array. The AWG response is designed to obtain large nearest neighbor crosstalk (i.e. large overlap) between output channels, which allows accurately measuring the wavelength of a laser under test using the centroid detection technique. The passive AWG is fabricated on a 220 nm silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform and is combined with GaInAsSb-based photodiodes. The photodiodes are heterogeneously integrated on the output grating couplers of the AWG using DVS-BCB adhesive bonding. The complete device with AWG and detectors has a footprint of only 2 mm(2) while the measured accuracy and resolution of the detected wavelength is better than 20pm.

Integration of GaAs-based VCSEL array on SiN platform with HCG reflectors for WDM applications

We present a GaAs-based VCSEL structure, BCB bonded to a Si3N4 waveguide circuit, where one DBR is substituted by a free-standing Si3N4 high-contrast-grating (HCG) reflector realized in the Si3N4 waveguide layer. This design enables solutions for on-chip spectroscopic sensing, and the dense integration of 850-nm WDM data communication transmitters where individual channel wavelengths are set by varying the HCG parameters. RCWA shows that a 300nm-thick Si3N4 HCG with 800nm period and 40% duty cycle reflects strongly (<99%) over a 75nm wavelength range around 850nm. A design with a standing-optical-field minimum at the III-V/airgap interface maximizes the HCG’s influence on the VCSEL wavelength, allowing for a 15-nm-wide wavelength setting range with low threshold gain (<1000 cm-1).

Hybrid InP-on-silicon photonic-crystal-based nanoamplifier (Conference Presentation)

Publisher’s Note: This conference presentation, originally published on 14 March 2018, was withdrawn on 6 April 2020 per author request.

InP-on-SOI electrically injected nanolaser diodes (Conference Presentation)

The development of energy-efficient ultra-compact nanolaser diodes integrated in a Silicon photonic platform is of paramount importance for the deployment of optical interconnects for intra-chip communications. In this work, we present our results on InP-based electrically injected photonic crystal (PhC) nanolaser integrated on a SOI waveguide circuitry. The lasers emit at room temperature in a continuous wave regime at 1560nm and exhibit thresholds of 0.1mA at 1V. We measure more than 100μW of light coupled into the SOI waveguides giving a wall-plug efficiency greater than 10%. The principle of the lasers relies on the use of a 1D PhC nanocavity made of InP-based materials positioned on top of a SOI waveguide to enable evanescent wave coupling. More in details, the laser cavity is a 650nm-wide rib waveguide drilled with a single row of equally sized holes (radius~100nm). The distance between the holes is varied to obtain Q-factors larger than 106 for a structure fully encapsulated in silica with material volume of the order of the cubic wavelength. Vertically, the InP heterostructure is a 450nm thick NIP junction embedding 5 strained InGaAsP quantum wells emitting at 1.53μm. By smartly positioning the metallic contacts, this configuration enables the efficient electrical injection of electron-holes pairs within the cavity without inducing optical losses which led us to demonstrate the laser emission coupled ta a Si waveguide.