SiN half-etch horizontal slot waveguides for integrated photonics: numerical modeling, fabrication, and characterization of passive components.

This work presents a "half-etch" horizontal slot waveguide design based on SiN, where only the upper SiN layer is etched to form a strip that confines the mode laterally. The numerical modeling, fabrication, and characterization of passive waveguiding components are described. This novel slot waveguide structure was designed with on-chip light amplification in mind, for example with an Er-doped oxide spacer layer. Proof-of-concept racetrack resonators were fabricated and characterized, showing quality factors up to 50,000 at critical coupling and residual losses of 4 dB/cm at wavelengths away from the N-H bond absorption peak in SiN, demonstrating the high potential of these horizontal slot waveguides for use in active integrated photonics.

Rare-earth doped micro-emitters made by lift-off processing in pulsed laser deposited layers on Si substrate.

Rare earth emitters are promising in integrated optics but require complex integration on silicon. In this work, we have fabricated an Y2O3:Eu3+ micro-emitter on SiO2 on Si substrate without etching. Since pulsed laser deposition produces a high quality layer at room temperature, material can be locally deposited on top of substrates by lift-off processing. After annealing, microstructures exhibit good crystallographic quality with controlled dimensions for light confinement and narrow emission. This works allows envisioning rare-earth doped micro-photonic structures directly integrated on silicon without etching, which opens the way to integration of new functional materials on silicon platform.

Selective grating obtained by dye microstructuration based on local photobleaching using a laser writer.

We propose a method to pattern organic optically active materials based on local photobleaching for creating a wavelength-selective grating. Usually, photobleaching is considered a limitation for an organic emitter. Here, this property is exploited to locally suppress dye emission and absorption at the microscale with an abrupt interface and no changes in layer thickness. Periodic patterns were fabricated and exhibit diffraction only at a 590 nm wavelength with a spectral selectivity of 11 nm. Based on laser writer flexibility and efficiency, this study shows the potential of local photobleaching for applications such as wavelength-selective grating fabrication.

Tensile strained germanium nanowires measured by photocurrent spectroscopy and X-ray microdiffraction.

Applying tensile strain in a single germanium crystal is a very promising way to tune its bandstructure and turn it into a direct band gap semiconductor. In this work, we stress vapor-liquid-solid grown germanium nanowires along their [111] axis thanks to the strain tranfer from a silicon nitride thin film by a microfabrication process. We measure the Γ-LH direct band gap transition by photocurrent spectrometry and quantify associated strain by X-ray Laue microdiffraction on beamline BM32 at the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility. Nanowires exhibit up to 1.48% strain and an absorption threshold down to 0.73 eV, which is in good agreement with theoretical computations for the Γ-LH transition, showing that the nanowire geometry is an efficient way of applying tensile uniaxial stress along the [111] axis of a germanium crystal.

The micropatterning of layers of colloidal quantum dots with inorganic ligands using selective wet etching.

The micropatterning of layers of colloidal quantum dots (QDs) stabilized by inorganic ligands is demonstrated using PbS core and CdSe/CdS core/shell QDs. A layer-by-layer approach is used to assemble the QD films, where each cycle involves the deposition of a QD layer by dip-coating, and the replacement of the native organic ligands by inorganic moieties, such as OH(-) and S(2-), followed by a thorough cleaning of the resulting film. This results in a smooth and crack-free QD film on which a photoresist can be spun. The micropatterns are defined by a positive photoresist, followed by the removal of uncovered QDs by selective wet etching with an HCl/H3PO4 mixture. The resulting patterns can have submicron feature dimensions, limited by the resolution of the lithographic process, and can be formed on planar and 3D substrates. It is shown that the photolithography and wet etching steps have little effect on the photoluminescence quantum yield of CdSe/CdS QDs. Compared with the unpatterned CdSe/CdS QD film, only a 10% degradation in the quantum yield is observed. These results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed micropatterning method to implement the large-scale device integration of colloidal quantum dots.

Study of evanescently-coupled and grating-assisted GaInAsSb photodiodes integrated on a silicon photonic chip.

In this paper we present GaInAsSb photodiodes heterogeneously integrated on SOI by BCB adhesive bonding for operation in the short-wave infrared wavelength region. Photodiodes using evanescent coupling between the silicon waveguide and the III-V structure are presented, showing a room temperature responsivity of 1.4A/W at 2.3 µm. Photodiode structures using a diffraction grating to couple from the silicon waveguide layer to the integrated photodiode are reported, showing a responsivity of 0.4A/W at 2.2 µm.

Exploring the benefits of surface analysis techniques to develop double multilayer transfer printing of J-Aggregates cyanine dyes by integrating L-b-L and µCp processes.

Layer-by-layer self-assembly (L-b-L assembly) makes possible to obtain polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) and one of the polyelectrolytes could be replaced by a dye molecule to obtain multilayers which may exhibit optical properties of great interest. On the other hand, µCp has become a routine technique for the preparation of micro- and nanostructured surfaces. In our development in progress of a surface engineering strategy to transfer J-Agg cyanine dyes onto surfaces by integrating L-b-L process and µCp, this contribution highlights how surface analysis imaging techniques can bring valuable information for the development of the process involving a double Multilayers Transfer Printing (MTP) with a Moiré effect. Key parameters sustaining image interpretation are difference in deposit thickness (optical microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy), in roughness (atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy), in charge effect (scanning electron microscopy) and the chemical contrast between unprinted and printed areas (time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry).