Mid-infrared supercontinuum generation in silicon-germanium all-normal dispersion waveguides.

We demonstrate coherent supercontinuum generation spanning over an octave from a silicon germanium-on-silicon waveguide using ∼200fs pulses at a wavelength of 4 µm. The waveguide is engineered to provide low all-normal dispersion in the TM polarization. We validate the coherence of the generated supercontinuum via simulations, with a high degree of coherence across the entire spectrum. Such a generated supercontinuum could lend itself to pulse compression down to 22 fs.

Sub-wavelength grating interdigitated combs as photonic waveguides.

In this Letter, we demonstrate a new, to the best of our knowledge, kind of photonic waveguide, in which the light propagates in the overlap of sub-wavelength patterned interdigitated combs. We present the fabrication and characterization of this waveguide, along with an adiabatic taper ensuring lossless transition with classical photonic waveguides. Finally, we explore some practical applications of this waveguide, as a bio-photonic sensor or as an optomechanical transduction scheme.

Integrated waveguide PIN photodiodes exploiting lateral Si/Ge/Si heterojunction.

Germanium photodetectors are considered to be mature components in the silicon photonics device library. They are critical for applications in sensing, communications, or optical interconnects. In this work, we report on design, fabrication, and experimental demonstration of an integrated waveguide PIN photodiode architecture that calls upon lateral double Silicon/Germanium/Silicon (Si/Ge/Si) heterojunctions. This photodiode configuration takes advantage of the compatibility with contact process steps of silicon modulators, yielding reduced fabrication complexity for transmitters and offering high-performance optical characteristics, viable for high-speed and efficient operation near 1.55 µm wavelengths. More specifically, we experimentally obtained at a reverse voltage of 1V a dark current lower than 10 nA, a responsivity higher than 1.1 A/W, and a 3 dB opto-electrical cut-off frequency over 50 GHz. The combined benefits of decreased process complexity and high-performance device operation pave the way towards attractive integration strategies to deploy cost-effective photonic transceivers on silicon-on-insulator substrates.

Controlling leakage losses in subwavelength grating silicon metamaterial waveguides.

Subwavelength gratings (SWG) are photonic structures with a period small enough to suppress diffraction, thereby acting as artificial dielectric materials, also called all-dielectric metamaterials. This property has been exploited in many high-performance photonic integrated devices in the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. While SWG waveguides are theoretically lossless, they may exhibit leakage penalty to the substrate due to a combination of reduced modal confinement and finite thickness of the buried oxide (BOX) layer. In this Letter, for the first time, to the best of our knowledge, we analyze substrate leakage losses in SWG waveguides. We establish a direct relation between the effective index of the waveguide mode and the leakage losses which, remarkably, is independent of the geometric parameters of the SWG waveguide. This universal relation is demonstrated both numerically and experimentally, and it provides practical design guidelines to mitigate leakage losses. For BOX thicknesses of 2 and 3 µm, we find negligible leakage losses when the mode effective index is higher than 1.65 and 1.55, respectively.

High-directionality fiber-chip grating coupler with interleaved trenches and subwavelength index-matching structure.

We present the first experimental demonstration of a new fiber-chip grating coupler concept that exploits the blazing effect by interleaving the standard full (220 nm) and shallow etch (70 nm) trenches in a 220 nm thick silicon layer. The high directionality is obtained by controlling the separation between the deep and shallow trenches to achieve constructive interference in the upward direction and destructive interference toward the silicon substrate. Utilizing this concept, the grating directionality can be maximized independent of the bottom oxide thickness. The coupler also includes a subwavelength-engineered index-matching region, designed to reduce the reflectivity at the interface between the injection waveguide and the grating. We report a measured fiber-chip coupling efficiency of -1.3 dB, the highest coupling efficiency achieved to date for a surface grating coupler in a 220 nm silicon-on-insulator platform fabricated in a conventional dual-etch process without high-index overlays or bottom mirrors.

Compact models for carrier-injection silicon microring modulators.

We propose compact DC and small-signal models for carrier-injection microring modulators that accurately describe the DC characteristics (resonance wavelength, quality factor, and extinction ratio) and the high frequency performance. The proposed theoretical models provide physical insights of the carrier-injection microring modulators with a variety of designs. The DC and small-signal models are implemented in Verilog-A for SPICE-compatible simulations.

Germanium avalanche receiver for low power interconnects.

Recent advances in silicon photonics have aided the development of on-chip communications. Power consumption, however, remains an issue in almost all integrated devices. Here, we report a 10 Gbit per second waveguide avalanche germanium photodiode under low reverse bias. The avalanche photodiode scheme requires only simple technological steps that are fully compatible with complementary metal oxide semiconductor processes and do not need nanometre accuracy and/or complex epitaxial growth schemes. An intrinsic gain higher than 20 was demonstrated under a bias voltage as low as -7 V. The Q-factor relating to the signal-to-noise ratio at 10 Gbit per second was maintained over 20 dB without the use of a trans-impedance amplifier for an input optical power lower than -26 dBm thanks to an aggressive shrinkage of the germanium multiplication region. A maximum gain over 140 was also obtained for optical powers below -35 dBm. These results pave the way for low-power-consumption on-chip communication applications.

Interferometric switching in coupled resonator optical waveguides-based reconfigurable optical device.

Integrated optical devices based on coupled resonator optical waveguides (CROW) for reconfigurable band routing are explored. A reconfiguration principle based on two bus interferometric CROW resonant structures is proposed. This device extends the functionalities of simple add-drop filters, adding more switching features. These new functionalities yield three functional states that comprehend a complete reconfigurability and a 50% splitter mode.

Demonstration of a heterogeneously integrated III-V/SOI single wavelength tunable laser.

A heterogeneously integrated III-V-on-silicon laser is reported, integrating a III-V gain section, a silicon ring resonator for wavelength selection and two silicon Bragg grating reflectors as back and front mirrors. Single wavelength operation with a side mode suppression ratio higher than 45 dB is obtained. An output power up to 10 mW at 20 °C and a thermo-optic wavelength tuning range of 8 nm are achieved. The laser linewidth is found to be 1.7 MHz.

40 Gbit/s low-loss silicon optical modulator based on a pipin diode.

40 Gbit/s low-loss silicon optical modulators are demonstrated. The devices are based on the carrier depletion effect in a pipin diode to generate a good compromise between high efficiency, speed and low optical loss. The diode is embedded in a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, and a self-aligned fabrication process was used to obtain precise localization of the active p-doped region in the middle of the waveguide. Using a 4.7 mm (resp. 0.95 mm) long phase shifter, the modulator exhibits an extinction ratio of 6.6 dB (resp. 3.2 dB), simultaneously with an optical loss of 6 dB (resp. 4.5 dB) at the same operating point.

Broadband microwave photonic fully tunable filter using a single heterogeneously integrated III-V/SOI-microdisk-based phase shifter.

A broadband microwave photonic phase shifter based on a single III-V microdisk resonator heterogeneously integrated on and coupled to a nanophotonic silicon-on-insulator waveguide is reported. The phase shift tunability is accomplished by modifying the effective index through carrier injection. A comprehensive semi-analytical model aiming at predicting its behavior is formulated and confirmed by measurements. Quasi-linear and continuously tunable 2π phase shifts at radiofrequencies greater than 18 GHz are experimentally demonstrated. The phase shifter performance is also evaluated when used as a key element in tunable filtering schemes. Distortion-free and wideband filtering responses with a tuning range of ~100% over the free spectral range are obtained.

Chip-to-chip optical interconnections between stacked self-aligned SOI photonic chips.

Photonic silicon devices are key enabling technologies for next generation High Performance Computers. In this paper, we report the possibility to stack and optically interconnect SOI based photonic chips for future System-In-Package photonic architecture. Combining vertical grating couplers and state-of-the-art flip-chip technology, we demonstrated low loss penalties and wide spectral range optical interconnections between stacked photonic chips.

Zero-bias 40Gbit/s germanium waveguide photodetector on silicon.

We report on lateral pin germanium photodetectors selectively grown at the end of silicon waveguides. A very high optical bandwidth, estimated up to 120GHz, was evidenced in 10 µm long Ge photodetectors using three kinds of experimental set-ups. In addition, a responsivity of 0.8 A/W at 1550 nm was measured. An open eye diagrams at 40Gb/s were demonstrated under zero-bias at a wavelength of 1.55 µm.

10 Gbit/s all-optical NRZ-OOK to RZ-OOK format conversion in an ultra-small III-V-on-silicon microdisk fabricated in a CMOS pilot line.

We report the demonstration of an all-optical, bias free and error-free (bit-error-rate ~10(-12)), 10 Gbit/s non-return-to-zero (NRZ) to return-to-zero (RZ) data format conversion using a 7.5 µm diameter III-V-on-silicon microdisk resonator. The device is completely processed in a 200 mm CMOS pilot line. The data format conversion is based on the phenomenon of pulse carving of an NRZ optical data stream by an optical clock. The underlying physical effect for the pulse carving is the change in the refractive index caused by the generation of free-carriers in a pump -probe configuration. We believe it to be the first NRZ-to-RZ format convertor built on a hybrid III-V-on-silicon technology platform.

Ten Gbit/s ring resonator silicon modulator based on interdigitated PN junctions.

10 Gbit/s silicon modulator based on carrier depletion in interdigitated PN junctions is experimentally demonstrated. The phase-shifter is integrated in a ring resonator, and high extinction ratio larger than 10 dB is obtained in both TE and TM polarizations. VπLπ of about 2.5 V × cm and optical loss lower than 1 dB are estimated. 10 Gbit/s data transmission is demonstrated with an extinction ratio of 4 dB.

Ultrafast and bias-free all-optical wavelength conversion using III-V-on-silicon technology.

Using a 7.5 µm diameter disk fabricated with III-V-on-silicon fabrication technology, we demonstrate bias-free all-optical wavelength conversion for non-return-to-zero on-off keyed pseudorandom bit sequence (PRBS) data at the speed of 10 Gbits/s with an extinction ratio of more than 12 dB. The working principle of such a wavelength converter is based on free-carrier-induced refractive index modulation in a pump-probe configuration. We believe it to be the first bias-free on-chip demonstration of all-optical wavelength conversion using PRBS data. All-optical gating measurements in the pump-probe configuration with the same device have revealed that it is possible to achieve wavelength conversion beyond 20 Gbits/s.

Optical characterization of a SCISSOR device.

Here, we report on the design, fabrication and characterization of single-channel (SC-) and dual-channel (DC-) side-coupled integrated spaced sequences of optical resonators (SCISSOR) with a finite number (eight) of microring resonators using submicron silicon photonic wires on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. We present results on the observation of multiple resonances in the through and the drop port signals of DC-SCISSOR. These result from the coupled resonator induced transparency (CRIT) which appears when the resonator band (RB) and the Bragg band (BB) are nearly coincident. We also observe the formation of high-Q (> 23000) quasi-localized modes in the RB of the drop transmission which appear when the RB and BB are well separated from each other. These multiple resonances and quasi-localized modes are induced by nanometer-scale structural disorders in the dimension of one or more rings. Finally, we demonstrate the tunability of RB (and BB) and localized modes in the DC-SCISSOR by thermo-optical or free-carrier refraction.

High extinction ratio 10 Gbit/s silicon optical modulator.

High speed and high extinction ratio silicon optical modulator using carrier depletion is experimentally demonstrated. The phase-shifter is a 1.8 mm-long PIPIN diode which is integrated in a Mach Zehnder interferometer. 8.1 dB Extinction Ratio at 10 Gbit/s is obtained simultaneously with optical loss as low as 6 dB.

Silicon-polymer hybrid slot waveguide ring-resonator modulator.

We demonstrate a ring-resonator modulator based on a silicon-polymer hybrid slot waveguide with a tunability of 12.7 pm/V at RF speeds and a bandwidth of 1 GHz, for optical wavelengths near 1550 nm. Our slot waveguides were fabricated with 193 nm optical lithography, as opposed to the electron beam lithography used for previous results. The tunability is comparable to some of the best ring-based modulators making use of the plasma dispersion effect. The speed is likely limited only by resistance in the strip-loading section, and it should be possible to realize significant improvement with improved processing.

Real-time cancellation of temperature induced resonance shifts in SOI wire waveguide ring resonator label-free biosensor arrays.

A comprehensive investigation of real-time temperature-induced resonance shift cancellation for silicon wire based biosensor arrays is reported for the first time. A reference resonator, protected by either a SU8 or SiO(2) cladding layer, is used to track temperature changes. The temperature dependence of resonators in aqueous solutions, pertinent to biosensing applications, is measured under steady-state conditions and the operating parameters influencing these properties are discussed. Real-time measurements show that the reference resonator resonances reflect the temperature changes without noticeable time delay, enabling effective cancellation of temperature-induced shifts. Binding between complementary IgG protein pairs is monitored over 4 orders of magnitude dynamic range down to a concentration of 20 pM, demonstrating a resolvable mass of 40 attograms. Reactions are measured over time periods as long as 3 hours with high stability, showing a scatter corresponding to a fluid refractive index fluctuation of ± 4 × 10(-6) in the baseline data. Sensor arrays with a SU8 protective cladding are easy to fabricate, while oxide cladding is found to provide superior stability for measurements involving long time scales.