High-Q-factor Al2O3 micro-trench cavities integrated with silicon nitride waveguides on silicon

We report on the design and performance of high-Q integrated optical micro-trench cavities on silicon. The microcavities are co-integrated with silicon nitride bus waveguides and fabricated using wafer-scale silicon-photonics-compatible processing steps. The amorphous aluminum oxide resonator materi...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Optics express 2018-04, Vol.26 (9), p.11161-11170
Main Authors: Su, Zhan, Li, Nanxi, Frankis, Henry C, Magden, E Salih, Adam, Thomas N, Leake, Gerald, Coolbaugh, Douglas, Bradley, Jonathan D B, Watts, Michael R
Format: Article
Language:English
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:We report on the design and performance of high-Q integrated optical micro-trench cavities on silicon. The microcavities are co-integrated with silicon nitride bus waveguides and fabricated using wafer-scale silicon-photonics-compatible processing steps. The amorphous aluminum oxide resonator material is deposited via sputtering in a single straightforward post-processing step. We examine the theoretical and experimental optical properties of the aluminum oxide micro-trench cavities for different bend radii, film thicknesses and near-infrared wavelengths and demonstrate experimental Q factors of > 106. We propose that this high-Q micro-trench cavity design can be applied to incorporate a wide variety of novel microcavity materials, including rare-earth-doped films for microlasers, into wafer-scale silicon photonics platforms.
ISSN:1094-4087
DOI:10.1364/OE.26.011161