Greg Parker

Visible-wavelength super-refraction in photonic crystal superprisms

We demonstrate the fabrication of superprism devices in photonic crystal waveguides with excellent transmission through 600 rows of 160nm diameter holes. Broadband spectral and angular measurements allow mapping of the chromatic refractivity. This shows the ability of such devices to super-refract by more than 1°/nm close to the principal band gaps,10× more than equivalent gratings, and 100× more than equivalent prisms. Simple theories based on plane-wave models give excellent agreement with these results.

Neodymium-doped tantalum pentoxide waveguide lasers

The fabrication, spectroscopic properties, and laser performance of Nd/sup 3+/-doped Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ channel waveguide lasers are described. Lasing is obtained at both 1.066 and 1.375 /spl mu/m with threshold pump powers as low as 2.7 mW. The rib waveguides are reactive-ion-etched into Nd:Ta/sub 2/O/sub 5/ layers formed by reactive magnetron sputtering. These high-index low-loss rare-earth-doped waveguides are fabricated on silicon substrates and offer the potential for integration with photonic crystal structures for compact optical circuits.

Separation of Photonic Crystal Waveguides Modes using Femtosecond Time-of-Flight

We demonstrate that ultrabroadband ultrashort-pulse white light supercontinua can be used to track the group velocity of photons in optical waveguides using a Kerr gate technique. Results on silicon nitride slab waveguides show both polarization birefringence and multimode dispersion, which vanish at critical wavelengths. When photonic crystals are embedded in the waveguides, the higher order modes are excited within the band-gap region, demonstrating the need to control their dispersion to make effective use of photonic crystal waveguide devices.

Highly engineered mesoporous structures for optical processing

Arranging periodic, or quasi-periodic, regions of differing refractive index in one, two, or three dimensions can form a unique class of mesoporous structures. These structures are generally known as photonic crystals, or photonic quasicrystals, and they are the optical analogue of semiconducting materials. Whereas a semiconductors band structure arises from the interaction of electron or hole waves with an arrangement of ion cores, the photonic crystal band structure results from the interaction of light waves with an arrangement of regions of differing refractive index. What makes photonic crystals highly attractive to the optical engineer is that we can actually place the regions of differing refractive index in a pattern specifically tailored to produce a given optical function, such as an extremely high dispersion, for example. That is, we can define the geometrical arrangement of the dielectric foam to provide us with the form of band structure we require for our optical functionality. In this paper, the optical properties and applications of these highly engineered mesoporous dielectrics will be discussed.

design and simulation of highly symmetric photonic quasi-crystals

A novel method for designing photonic crystals with high orders of rotational symmetry using an inverse Fourier transform (IFT) method is presented. The IFT of an n-sided polygon is taken and the positions of the peaks are computed in order to obtain a set of discrete points in real space where the scattering centres are to be located. We show, by simulating the diffraction pattern, that although these points appear disordered they possess long range order, which also confirms that the arrangement of points has n-fold rotational symmetry. The designed structures can possess an arbitrary number of rotational symmetries, whilst retaining the sharp diffraction patterns characteristic of known crystal lattices which exhibit wide bandgaps. We present simulation results using the finite difference time domain method (FDTDM) for large non-repeating patterns of scatterers produced by this method. We also present results where around 50 points have been generated in a square unit cell and tiled to produce a lattice. These were simulated using both the finite element method (FEM) and the FDTDM, which were shown to agree. Our results demonstrate that the method is capable of producing crystal structures with wide bandgaps where the scattering centres are either non-repeating with no fundamental unit cell, or consist of a (large) number of points in a unit cell, which may then be tiled to form a lattice

Photonic bandgaps in patterned waveguides of silicon-rich silicon dioxide

We describe waveguides of photoluminescent silicon-rich silicon dioxide, which have been patterned by triangular two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystals to give higher-order photonic bandgaps occurring within the luminescence band of the core material. Photonic crystal modification of the photoluminescence spectrum allows identification of angle-tuned photonic bandgaps, in close agreement with 2D plane wave expansion and finite-difference time domain simulations. We discuss the importance of these findings for the development of integrated optical circuitry based on silicon-compatible microelectronics.

Realisation of ultra-low loss photonic crystal slab waveguide devices

In this paper we demonstrate low loss transmission both above and below the primary band-gap for a photonic crystal (PC) super-prism device consisting of 600 lattice periods. By modifying the refractive index of the holes, we reduce overall insertion loss to just 4.5 dB across the entire visible spectrum. We show that the remaining loss is predominantly due to impedance mismatch at the boundaries between patterned and unpatterned slab waveguide regions. Experimental loss measurements compare well with finite difference time domain simulations.

Novel fabrication methods for submicrometer Josephson junction qubits

Novel processes for the fabrication of mesoscopic Josephson junction qubits have been developed, based on superconducting Al/Al2O3/Al tunnel junctions. These are fabricated by electron beam lithography using single-layer and multi-layer resists, and standard processes that are compatible with conventional CMOS processing. The new single-layer resist process is found to have significant advantages over conventional fabrication methods using suspended tri-layer shadow masks.

Fabrication of photonic crystals in rare-earth doped chalcogenide glass films for enhanced upconversion

Gallium lanthanum oxysulfide (GLSO) is a promising host material for observing strong upconversion emission from trivalent rare-earth ions such as erbium (Er3+). Its attractive properties include high rare-earth solubility due to the lanthanum content of the glass former, a high refractive index (n = 2.2 at 550nm) for high radiative efficiency, and a low maximum phonon energy of approximately 425cm -1. Photonic crystals meanwhile can provide controlled light extraction, and may be capable of suppressing unwanted IR emission from lower lying metastable states. Here, we describe the fabrication of photonic crystals in annealed films of Er3+-doped GLSO deposited by RF sputtering. The most intense visible upconversion emission is observed in films annealed at 550°C, close to the bulk glass transition temperature. Hexagonal lattice photonic crystals are subsequently milled into the films using a focused ion beam (FIB). The milling parameters are optimized to produce the most vertical sidewall profile.

Erbium diffusion in silicon investigated using enclosed silicon cavities

Abstract A novel enclosed silicon cavity was used to study the diffusion of erbium into single crystal silicon at 1315 °C. Diffusion was also carried out in conventional flowing gas ambients. Well behaved error function SIMS concentration profiles for an oxygen-argon ambient mixture exhibited a diffusion constant between 1 × 10 −16 and 3 × 10 −16 cm 2 /s at 1315 °C.