I. Roland

Near-infrared gallium nitride two-dimensional photonic crystal platform on silicon

We demonstrate a two-dimensional free-standing gallium nitride photonic crystal platform operating around 1550 nm and fabricated on a silicon substrate. Width-modulated waveguide cavities are integrated and exhibit loaded quality factors up to 34 000 at 1575 nm. We show the resonance tunability by varying the ratio of air hole radius to periodicity, and cavity hole displacement. We deduce a ∼7.9 dB/cm linear absorption loss for the suspended nitride structure from the power dependence of the cavity in-plane transmission.

Deep-UV nitride-on-silicon microdisk lasers

Deep ultra-violet semiconductor lasers have numerous applications for optical storage and biochemistry. Many strategies based on nitride heterostructures and adapted substrates have been investigated to develop efficient active layers in this spectral range, starting with AlGaN quantum wells on AlN substrates and more recently sapphire and SiC substrates. Here we report an efficient and simple solution relying on binary GaN/AlN quantum wells grown on a thin AlN buffer layer on a silicon substrate. This active region is embedded in microdisk photonic resonators of high quality factors and allows the demonstration of a deep ultra-violet microlaser operating at 275 nm at room temperature under optical pumping, with a spontaneous emission coupling factor β = (4 ± 2) 10−4. The ability of the active layer to be released from the silicon substrate and to be grown on silicon-on-insulator substrates opens the way to future developments of nitride nanophotonic platforms on silicon.

Resonant second harmonic generation in a gallium nitride two-dimensional photonic crystal on silicon

We demonstrate second harmonic generation in a gallium nitride photonic crystal cavity embedded in a two-dimensional free-standing photonic crystal platform on silicon. The photonic crystal nanocavity is optically pumped with a continuous-wave laser at telecom wavelengths in the transparency window of the nitride material. The harmonic generation is evidenced by the spectral range of the emitted signal, the quadratic power dependence vs. input power, and the spectral dependence of second harmonic signal. The harmonic emission pattern is correlated to the harmonic polarization generated by the second-order nonlinear susceptibilities χzxx(2), χzyy(2) and the electric fields of the fundamental cavity mode.

Phase-matched second harmonic generation with on-chip GaN-on-Si microdisks

We demonstrate phase-matched second harmonic generation in gallium nitride on silicon microdisks. The microdisks are integrated with side-coupling bus waveguides in a two-dimensional photonic circuit. The second harmonic generation is excited with a continuous wave laser in the telecom band. By fabricating a series of microdisks with diameters varying by steps of 8 nm, we obtain a tuning of the whispering gallery mode resonances for the fundamental and harmonic waves. Phase matching is obtained when both resonances are matched with modes satisfying the conservation of orbital momentum, which leads to a pronounced enhancement of frequency conversion.

Near-infrared III-nitride-on-silicon nanophotonic platform with microdisk resonators.

We have developed a nanophotonic platform with microdisks using epitaxial III-nitride materials on silicon. The two-dimensional platform consists of suspended waveguides and mushroom-type microdisks as resonators side-coupled with a bus waveguide. Loaded quality factors up to 80000 have been obtained in the near-infrared spectral range for microdisk diameters between 8 and 15 μm. We analyze the dependence of the quality factors as a function of coupling efficiency. We have performed continuous-wave second harmonic generation experiments in resonance with the whispering gallery modes supported by the microdisks.

III-Nitride-on-silicon microdisk lasers from the blue to the deep ultra-violet

We present a series of microdisk lasers realized within the same GaN-on-Si photonic platform scheme, and operating at room temperature under pulsed optical pumping over a broad spectral range extending over λ = 275 nm–470 nm. The III-nitride microdisks embed either binary GaN/AlN multiple quantum wells (MQWs) for UV operation, or ternary InGaN/GaN MQWs for violet and blue operation. This demonstrates the versatility of this nitride-on-silicon platform, and the realization on this platform of efficient active layers for lasing action over a 200 nm broad UV to visible spectral range. We probe the lasing threshold carrier density over the whole spectral range and found that it is similar whatever the emission wavelength for these Q > 1000 microdisk resonators with a constant material quality until quantum confined Stark effect takes over. The threshold is also found independent of microdisk diameters from 3 to 12 μm, with a β factor intermediate between the one of vertical cavity lasers and the one of small modal volume “thresholdless” lasers.

Laser damage of free-standing nanometer membranes

Many high-field/attosecond and ultrafast electron diffraction/microscopy experiments on condensed matter require samples in the form of free-standing membranes with nanometer thickness. Here, we report the measurement of the laser-induced damage threshold of 11 different free-standing nanometer-thin membranes of metallic, semiconducting, and insulating materials for 1-ps, 1030-nm laser pulses at 50 kHz repetition rate. We find a laser damage threshold that is very similar to each corresponding bulk material. The measurements also reveal a band gap dependence of the damage threshold as a consequence of different ionization rates. These results establish the suitability of free-standing nanometer membranes for high-field pump-probe experiments.

Q factor limitation at short wavelength (around 300 nm) in III-nitride-on-silicon photonic crystal cavities

III-nitride-on-silicon L3 photonic crystal cavities with resonances down to 315 nm and quality factors (Q) up to 1085 at 337 nm have been demonstrated. The reduction of the quality factor with decreasing wavelength is investigated. Besides the quantum well absorption below 340 nm, a noteworthy contribution is attributed to the residual absorption present in thin AlN layers grown on silicon, as measured by spectroscopic ellipsometry. This residual absorption ultimately limits the Q factor to around 2000 at 300 nm when no active layer is present.

III-nitride on silicon microdisks: electrical injection and bus waveguide side-coupling (Conference Presentation)

Group-III-nitride nanophotonics on silicon is a booming field, from the near-IR to the UV spectral range. The main interest of III-nitride nanophotonic circuits is the integration of active structures and laser sources. Laser sources with a small footprint can be obtained with microresonators formed by photonic crystals or microdisks, exhibiting quality factors up to a few thousand down to the UV-C. So far, single microdisk laser devices have been demonstrated, mostly under optical pumping. Combining microdisk lasers under electrical injection with passive devices represents a major challenge in realizing a viable III-nitride nanophotonic platform on silicon. As a first step to realize this goal, we have separately demonstrated electroluminescence from microdisks and side-coupling of microdisks to bus waveguides with outcoupling gratings in the blue spectral range. We have developed the fabrication of electrically injected microdisks with a circular p-contact on top of the disk that is connected to a larger pad via a mechanically stable metal microbridge. Blue electroluminescence is observed under current injection at room temperature. We also demonstrated high Q factor (Q > 2000) WGMs in the blue spectral range from microdisks side-coupled to bus waveguides, as measured from the luminescence of embedded InGaN quantum wells. The WGM resonances are clearly observed through outcoupling gratings following propagation in partially etched waveguides to remove quantum well absorption. Small gaps between microdisks and bus waveguides of around 100 nm are necessary for efficient coupling in the blue spectral range, which represents a major fabrication challenge. We will discuss the progress brought by these building blocks to generate future III-nitride photonic circuits.

Blue microlasers integrated on a photonic platform on silicon

The main interest of group-III-nitride nanophotonic circuits is the integration of active structures and laser sources. A photonic platform of group-III-nitride microdisk lasers integrated on silicon and emitting in the blue spectral range is demonstrated. The active microdisks are side-coupled to suspended bus waveguides, and the coupled emission is guided and outcoupled to free space using grating couplers. A small gap size of less than 100 nm between the disk and the waveguide is required in the blue spectral range for optimal evanescent coupling. To avoid reabsorption of the microdisk emission in the waveguide, the quantum wells are etched away from the waveguide. Under continuous-wave excitation, loaded quality factors greater than 2000 are observed for the whispering gallery modes for devices with small gaps and large waveguide bending angles. Under pulsed excitation conditions, lasing is evidenced for 3 μm diameter microdisks integrated in a full photonic circuit. We thus present a first demonstrat...