Versatile Silicon Nitride and Alumina Integrated Photonic Platforms for the Ultraviolet to Short-Wave Infrared

• Published in: IEEE journal of selected topics in quantum electronics Vol. 25; no. 5; pp. 1 - 15
• Main Authors: Sorace-Agaskar, Cheryl, Kharas, Dave, Yegnanarayanan, Siva, Maxson, Ryan T., West, Gavin N., Loh, William, Bramhavar, Suraj, Ram, Rajeev J., Chiaverini, John, Sage, Jeremy, Juodawlkis, Paul
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York IEEE 01.09.2019; The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc. (IEEE)
• Subjects: Aluminum oxide; CMOS; Integrated photonics; Loss measurement; Microwave photonics; Multilayers; Optical device fabrication; Optical filters; Optical losses; Optical waveguides; Photonics; Platforms; Short wave radiation; Silicon; Silicon compounds; Silicon dioxide; Silicon nitride; Wavelengths
• ISSN: 1077-260X; 1558-4542
• DOI: 10.1109/JSTQE.2019.2904443

We demonstrate scalable and intercompatible multilayer photonic platforms that operate over a multioctave wavelength range from the near-ultraviolet (NUV) into the short-wave infrared (SWIR). We demonstrate low-loss waveguides (<inline-formula><tex-math notation="LaTeX">\leq</tex-math></inline-formula>3 dB/cm above 370 nm and <0.3 dB/cm between 633 and 1550 nm for both TE and TM polarizations) and present verified component libraries at several wavelengths within this range. We demonstrate the use of thermo-optic heaters for tuning in the SWIR and show that we can automatically initialize complex optical filters. Our platforms are fabricated in a silicon CMOS foundry operating at a 90 nm node and consist of silicon nitride (SiN) and amorphous aluminum oxide (alumina, Al 2 O 3 ) optical waveguides cladd with silicon dioxide (SiO 2 ). They can be combined in multilayer stacks to enable complex routing of multiple wavelengths, making them useful for applications ranging from atomic-molecular-optical applications to biophotonics to integrated microwave photonics.