High confinement, high yield Si3N4 waveguides for nonlinear optical application

In this paper we present a novel fabrication technique for silicon nitride (Si3N4) waveguides with a thickness of up to 900 nm, which are suitable for nonlinear optical applications. The fabrication method is based on etching trenches in thermally oxidized silicon and filling the trenches with Si3N4. Using this technique no stress-induced cracks in the Si3N4 layer were observed resulting in a high yield of devices on the wafer. The propagation losses of the obtained waveguides were measured to be as low as 0.4 dB/cm at a wavelength of around 1550 nm.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure

Analysis systems for the detection of ammonia based on micromachined components modular hybrid versus monolithic integrated approach

This paper presents two miniaturized analysis systems for measurement of the ammonia concentration in aqueous solutions. Both systems are based on identical micromachined components. In the first system the components are integrated on one chip, thus literally forming a "lab-on-a-chip". The second system uses the components as separate dies assembled in or on a printed circuit board (PCB) and connected via a micromachined fluidic channel plate. The latter modular system provides easy replacement of components, either to replace a malfunctioning component or to upgrade a component to an improved version. Additionally, replacement of modules enables a change in the functionality of the system in order to perform a different chemical analysis. With the monolithic and the modular system measurement of concentrations in the range 10-20 mM, respectively, 5.6-560 µM were demonstrated.\ud \ud With this paper, the authors intend to show that both the integrated as well as the modular approach of making a micromachined analytical system can result in working systems. Though the chemical behavior of both systems were not fully explored, it is made clear that both approaches can successfully be used for chemical analysis purposes

Progress on a hybrid tellurite glass and silicon nitride waveguide platform for passive, active, and nonlinear photonic integrated circuits

We present on recent progress on a hybrid tellurite glass and silicon nitride photonic platform. We show low loss waveguides and Q factors < 10^6 in microring resonators. We also show rare-earth-doped active devices, including erbium-doped and thulium-doped waveguide amplifiers and thulium-doped microring lasers. Using the same approach, we demonstrate nonlinear functionalities including efficient four-wave-mixing, supercontinuum generation and third harmonic generation in compact microring resonators and waveguides. The platform is highly promising for compact and low-cost passive, active and nonlinear photonic integrated circuits for applications in computing, communications, sensing and metrolog