Eric Cassan

Size influence on the propagation loss induced by sidewall roughness in ultrasmall SOI waveguides

Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguides with high electromagnetic field confinement suffer from sidewall roughness which is responsible for strong scattering effects. This letter reports a numerical investigation on the size influence of ultrasmall SOI waveguides on the propagation loss due to sidewall roughness. It is shown that for a size smaller than 260 /spl times/ 260 nm the roughness-induced propagation loss decreases. As the optical mode confinement is reduced, a very low loss light coupling from and to a single-mode fiber can be achieved with propagation loss as low as 0.5 dB/cm for a 150 /spl times/ 150 nm cross-sectional waveguide.

Roadmap on silicon photonics

Silicon photonics research can be dated back to the 1980s. However, the previous decade has witnessed an explosive growth in the field. Silicon photonics is a disruptive technology that is poised to revolutionize a number of application areas, for example, data centers, high-performance computing and sensing. The key driving force behind silicon photonics is the ability to use CMOS-like fabrication resulting in high-volume production at low cost. This is a key enabling factor for bringing photonics to a range of technology areas where the costs of implementation using traditional photonic elements such as those used for the telecommunications industry would be prohibitive. Silicon does however have a number of shortcomings as a photonic material. In its basic form it is not an ideal material in which to produce light sources, optical modulators or photodetectors for example. A wealth of research effort from both academia and industry in recent years has fueled the demonstration of multiple solutions to these and other problems, and as time progresses new approaches are increasingly being conceived. It is clear that silicon photonics has a bright future. However, with a growing number of approaches available, what will the silicon photonic integrated circuit of the future look like? This roadmap on silicon photonics delves into the different technology and application areas of the field giving an insight into the state-of-the-art as well as current and future challenges faced by researchers worldwide. Contributions authored by experts from both industry and academia provide an overview and outlook for the silicon waveguide platform, optical sources, optical modulators, photodetectors, integration approaches, packaging, applications of silicon photonics and approaches required to satisfy applications at mid-infrared wavelengths. Advances in science and technology required to meet challenges faced by the field in each of these areas are also addressed together with predictions of where the field is destined to reach.

Optical microcavity with semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes

We report studies of optical Fabry-Perot microcavities based on semiconducting single-wall carbon nanotubes with a quality factor of 160. We experimentally demonstrate a huge photoluminescence signal enhancement by a factor of 30 in comparison with the identical film and by a factor of 180 if compared with a thin film containing non-purified (8,7) nanotubes. Furthermore, the spectral full-width at half-maximum of the photo-induced emission is reduced down to 8 nm with very good directivity at a wavelength of about 1.3 microm. Such results prove the great potential of carbon nanotubes for photonic applications.

Highly sensitive refractive index sensing by fast detuning the critical coupling condition of slot waveguide ring resonators

We experimentally investigate refractive index sensing in silicon slot waveguide ring resonators by the detection of the giant shift of the ring transmission spectrum envelope enabled by the following specific conditions: the slot waveguide cross section as well as the ring couplers have been designed to lead to a V-shaped microring resonator spectrum modulated by the classical frequency comb and exhibiting quality factor peaks of 2000-6000 around λ=1.5u2009u2009μm. By tracking the spectrum envelope wavelength shift, sensitivity up to S=1,300u2009u2009nm per refraction index unit (RIU) is reported when the slots are filled by liquids with refraction index values close to 1.33.

High-quality photonic entanglement for wavelength-multiplexed quantum communication based on a silicon chip

We report an efficient energy-time entangled photon-pair source based on four-wave mixing in a CMOS-compatible silicon photonics ring resonator. Thanks to suitable optimization, the source shows a large spectral brightness of 400 pairs of entangled photons /s/MHz for 500 μW pump power, compatible with standard telecom dense wavelength division multiplexers. We demonstrate high-purity energy-time entanglement, i.e., free of photonic noise, with near perfect raw visibilities (> 98%) between various channel pairs in the telecom C-band. Such a compact source stands as a path towards more complex quantum photonic circuits dedicated to quantum communication systems.We report an efficient energy-time entangled photon-pair source based on four-wave mixing in a CMOS-compatible silicon photonics ring resonator. Thanks to suitable optimization, the source shows a large spectral brightness of 400 pairs of entangled photons /s/MHz for 500 μW pump power, compatible with standard telecom dense wavelength division multiplexers. We demonstrate high-purity energy-time entanglement, i.e., free of photonic noise, with near perfect raw visibilities (> 98%) between various channel pairs in the telecom C-band. Such a compact source stands as a path towards more complex quantum photonic circuits dedicated to quantum communication systems.

Analysis of silicon-on-insulator slot waveguide ring resonators targeting high Q-factors

Vertical slot waveguide micro-ring resonators in silicon photonics have already been demonstrated in previous works and applied to several schemes, including sensing and hybrid nonlinear optics. Their performances, first quantified by the reachable Q-factors, are still perceived to be restrained by larger intrinsic propagation losses than those suffered by simple Si wire waveguides. In this Letter, the optical loss mechanisms of slot waveguide micro-ring resonators are thoroughly investigated with a special focus on the coupler loss contribution that turns out to be the key obstacle to achieving high Q-factors. By engineering the coupler design, slotted ring resonators with a 50 μm radius are experienced with a loaded Q-factor up to 10 times improvement from Q=3,000 to Q=30,600. The intrinsic losses due to the light propagation in the bent slot ring itself are proved to be as low as 1.32±0.87u2009u2009dB/cm at λ=1,550u2009u2009nm. These investigations of slot ring resonators open high performance potentials for on-chip nonlinear optical processing or sensing in hybrid silicon photonics.

Germanium Photodetectors for Photonics on CMOS

Germanium Photodetectors for Photonics on CMOS JM Fedeli, JF Damlencourt, L El Melhaoui, Y Le Cunff, V Mazzochi CEA-DRT/LETI, 17 rue des Martyrs, 38054 GRENOBLE cedex 9, France Laurent Vivien, Delphine Marris Morini, Mathieu Rouviere*, Daniel Pascal, Xavier Le Roux, Eric Cassan, Suzanne Laval Institut dElectronique Fondamentale, Universite Paris Sud CNRS UMR 8622, Bat. 220, 91405 Orsay cedex, France *also STMicroelectronics, 850 rue Jean Monnet, 38926 CROLLES cedex, France

L-shaped fiber-chip grating couplers with high directionality and low reflectivity fabricated with deep-UV lithography

Grating couplers enable position-friendly interfacing of silicon chips by optical fibers. The conventional coupler designs call upon comparatively complex architectures to afford efficient light coupling to sub-micron silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides. Conversely, the blazing effect in double-etched gratings provides high coupling efficiency with reduced fabrication intricacy. In this Letter, we demonstrate for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, the realization of an ultra-directional L-shaped grating coupler, seamlessly fabricated by using 193xa0nm deep-ultraviolet (deep-UV) lithography. We also include a subwavelength index engineered waveguide-to-grating transition that provides an eight-fold reduction of the grating reflectivity, down to 1% (-20u2009u2009dB). A measured coupling efficiency of -2.7u2009u2009dB (54%) is achieved, with a bandwidth of 62xa0nm. These results open promising prospects for the implementation of efficient, robust, and cost-effective coupling interfaces for sub-micrometric SOI waveguides, as desired for large-volume applications in silicon photonics.

Nonlinear Properties of Ge-rich Si 1−x Ge x Materials with Different Ge Concentrations

Silicon photonics is a large volume and large scale integration platform for applications from long-haul optical telecommunications to intra-chip interconnects. Extension to the mid-IR wavelength range is now largely investigated, mainly driven by absorption spectroscopy applications. Germanium (Ge) is particularly compelling as it has a broad transparency window up to 15 µm and a much higher third-order nonlinear coefficient than silicon which is very promising for the demonstration of efficient non-linear optics based active devices. Si1−xGex alloys have been recently studied due to their ability to fine-tune the bandgap and refractive index. The material nonlinearities are very sensitive to any modification of the energy bands, so Si1−xGex alloys are particularly interesting for nonlinear device engineering. We report on the first third order nonlinear experimental characterization of Ge-rich Si1−xGex waveguides, with Ge concentrations x ranging from 0.7 to 0.9. The characterization performed at 1580 nm is compared with theoretical models and a discussion about the prediction of the nonlinear properties in the mid-IR is introduced. These results will provide helpful insights to assist the design of nonlinear integrated optical based devices in both the near- and mid-IR wavelength ranges.

Narrow-linewidth carbon nanotube emission in silicon hollow-core photonic crystal cavity

Polymer-sorted semiconducting single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) provide room-temperature emission at near-infrared wavelengths, with potential for large volume production of high-quality solutions and wafer-scale deposition. These features make SWNTs a very attractive material for the realization of on-chip light sources. Coupling SWNT into optical microcavities could enhance and guide their emission, while enabling spectral selection by cavity resonance engineering. This could allow the realization of bright, narrowband sources. Here, we report the first demonstration of coupling SWNTs into the resonant modes of Si hollow-core photonic crystal cavities. We exploit the strong evanescent field in these resonators to interact with SWNT emission, coupling it into an integrated access waveguide. Based on this concept, we demonstrate narrowband SWNT emission resonantly coupled into a Si bus waveguide with a full width at half-maximum of 0.34xa0nm and an off-resonance rejection exceeding 5xa0dB.