Transparent amorphous silicon channel waveguides and high-Q resonators using a damascene process

• Main Authors: Sun, Rong (Contributor), Cheng, Jing (Contributor), Michel, Jurgen (Contributor), Kimerling, Lionel C. (Contributor)
• Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Materials Science and Engineering (Contributor), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Microphotonics Center (Contributor)
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Optical Society of America, 2013-10-04T13:45:22Z.
• Subjects: Article
• Online Access: Get fulltext

We demonstrate a damascene process for fabricating amorphous silicon (a-Si), single-mode optical channel waveguides and high-Q racetrack resonators. This process is compatible with thermal budget limitations for a-Si phase stability. It offers improved optical transmission and facilitates hydrogen encapsulation for process integration of a-Si waveguide cores. At 1550 nm , the average measured transmission loss coefficient is 2.5±0.1 dB/cm for the TE mode, comparable with high-quality single crystalline silicon counterparts. The racetrack resonators have mid- 10[superscript 4] to 10[superscript 5] quality factors (Q) and extinction ratios as high as 25 dB .