22,559 research outputs found

    Hybrid integrated platforms for silicon photonics

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    A review of recent progress in hybrid integrated platforms for silicon photonics is presented. Integration of III-V semiconductors onto silicon-on-insulator substrates based on two different bonding techniques is compared, one comprising only inorganic materials, the other technique using an organic bonding agent. Issues such as bonding process and mechanism, bonding strength, uniformity, wafer surface requirement, and stress distribution are studied in detail. The application in silicon photonics to realize high-performance active and passive photonic devices on low-cost silicon wafers is discussed. Hybrid integration is believed to be a promising technology in a variety of applications of silicon photonics

    Silicon-organic hybrid electro-optical devices

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    Organic materials combined with strongly guiding silicon waveguides open the route to highly efficient electro-optical devices. Modulators based on the so-called silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) platform have only recently shown frequency responses up to 100 GHz, high-speed operation beyond 112 Gbit/s with fJ/bit power consumption. In this paper, we review the SOH platform and discuss important devices such as Mach-Zehnder and IQ-modulators based on the linear electro-optic effect. We further show liquid-crystal phase-shifters with a voltage-length product as low as V pi L = 0.06 V.mm and sub-mu W power consumption as required for slow optical switching or tuning optical filters and devices

    Electrically packaged silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) I/Q-modulator for 64 GBd operation

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    Silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) electro-optic (EO) modulators combine small footprint with low operating voltage and hence low power dissipation, thus lending themselves to on-chip integration of large-scale device arrays. Here we demonstrate an electrical packaging concept that enables high-density radio-frequency (RF) interfaces between on-chip SOH devices and external circuits. The concept combines high-resolution Al2O3\mathrm{Al_2O_3} printed-circuit boards with technically simple metal wire bonds and is amenable to packaging of device arrays with small on-chip bond pad pitches. In a set of experiments, we characterize the performance of the underlying RF building blocks and we demonstrate the viability of the overall concept by generation of high-speed optical communication signals. Achieving line rates (symbols rates) of 128 Gbit/s (64 GBd) using quadrature-phase-shiftkeying (QPSK) modulation and of 160 Gbit/s (40 GBd) using 16-state quadrature-amplitudemodulation (16QAM), we believe that our demonstration represents an important step in bringing SOH modulators from proof-of-concept experiments to deployment in commercial environments

    Nanoimprinting of Photonic Devices for Visible Light Applications

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    The science of photonics is increasingly enabling the discovery of unprecedented proprieties that stem from the interaction of light with nanostructured matter. On the other hand, nanotechnology provides a key support to the research in photonics. In particular nanoimprint lithography (NIL) proved important to accelerate the development and prototyping of novel photonic device concepts. In this thesis, NIL was analyzed as a suitable, flexible, low-cost lithography solution for photonics. The purpose of this work is to research and evaluate novel nanofabrication technologies, materials and device concepts to support and innovate the fields of photonics and nanotechnology. In doing so, different implementations of NIL were experimentally investigated on the imprint of novel photonic devices into purely organic and hybrid organic-inorganic sol-gel materials. Two main research themes on printable photonics are explored in parallel. The first concerns the development and testing of nanoimprint technologies to pursue the fabrication of progressively more challenging device concepts, from 2D to 3D. As a second research theme, the idea to couple top-down nano-patterning approaches (NIL) with bottom-up functionalities that emerge from engineering material proprieties at the chemistry level is put forward. To explore these research courses, two photonic devices were designed, fabricated and tested: an integrated holographic planar circuit for on-chip spectroscopy, and a photonic crystal slab printed out of a functional, high-refractive index material. The amount of integration, complexity and variety of the printed optical components presented here allow us to extend the validity of the work to an even broader range of photonic devices. This work advances the field of printable photonics and demonstrates its leverage to innovation, which encompasses several scientific fields

    Plasmonic-Organic and Silicon-Organic Hybrid Modulators for High-Speed Signal Processing

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    High-speed electro-optic (EO) modulators are key devices for optical communications, microwave photonics, and for broadband signal processing. Among the different material platforms for high-density photonic integrated circuits (PIC), silicon photonics sticks out because of CMOS foundries specialized in PIC fabrication. However, the absence of the Pockels effect in silicon renders EO modulators with high-efficiency and large modulation bandwidth difficult. In this dissertation, plasmonic and photonic slot waveguide modulators are investigated. The devices are built on the silicon platform and are combined with highly-efficient organic EO materials. Using such a hybrid platform, we realize compact and fast plasmonic-organic hybrid (POH) and silicon-organic hybrid (SOH) modulators. As an application example, we demonstrate for the first time an advanced terahertz communication link by directly converting data on a 360 GHz carrier to a data stream on an optical carrier. For optical transmitter applications, we overcome the bandwidth limitation of conventional SOH modulators by introducing a high-k dielectric microwave slotline for guiding the modulating radio-frequency signal which is capacitively-coupled to the EO modulating region. We confirm the viability of such capacitively-coupled SOH modulators by generating four-state pulse amplitude modulated signals with data rates up to 200 Gbit/s

    Advances in small lasers

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    M.T.H was supported by an Australian Research council Future Fellowship research grant for this work. M.C.G. is grateful to the Scottish Funding Council (via SUPA) for financial support.Small lasers have dimensions or modes sizes close to or smaller than the wavelength of emitted light. In recent years there has been significant progress towards reducing the size and improving the characteristics of these devices. This work has been led primarily by the innovative use of new materials and cavity designs. This Review summarizes some of the latest developments, particularly in metallic and plasmonic lasers, improvements in small dielectric lasers, and the emerging area of small bio-compatible or bio-derived lasers. We examine the different approaches employed to reduce size and how they result in significant differences in the final device, particularly between metal- and dielectric-cavity lasers. We also present potential applications for the various forms of small lasers, and indicate where further developments are required.PostprintPeer reviewe
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