Er-doped light emitting slot waveguides monolithically integrated in a silicon photonic chip

• Published in: Nanotechnology Vol. 24; no. 11; p. 115202
• Main Authors: Ramírez, J M, Ferrarese Lupi, F, Berencén, Y, Anopchenko, A, Colonna, J P, Jambois, O, Fedeli, J M, Pavesi, L, Prtljaga, N, Rivallin, P, Tengattini, A, Navarro-Urrios, D, Garrido, B
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Bristol IOP Publishing 22.03.2013; Institute of Physics
• Subjects: Applied sciences; Circuits; Current density; Density; Devices; Electronics; Exact sciences and technology; Horizontal; Optoelectronic devices; Photonics; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Silicon; Waveguides; Voltage current curve; High density; Charge carrier; Doping; Optical modulator; Space charge; Chip; Waveguide; Optical density; Light emitting diode; Free carrier; Silicon oxides; Integrated circuit; Optoelectronic device; Optical waveguide; Silicon; Current density; Active material; Erbium
• ISSN: 0957-4484; 1361-6528
• DOI: 10.1088/0957-4484/24/11/115202

An integrated erbium-based light emitting diode has been realized in a waveguide configuration allowing 1.54 μm light signal routing in silicon photonic circuits. This injection device is based on an asymmetric horizontal slot waveguide where the active slot material is Er3+ in SiO2 or Er3+ in Si-rich oxide. The active horizontal slot waveguide allows optical confinement, guiding and lateral extraction of the light for on-chip distribution. Light is then coupled through a taper section to a passive Si waveguide terminated by a grating which extracts (or inserts) the light signal for measuring purposes. We measured an optical power density in the range of tens of μW cm2 which follows a super-linear dependence on injected current density. When the device is biased at high current density, upon a voltage pulse (pump signal), free-carrier and space charge absorption losses become large, attenuating a probe signal by more than 60 dB/cm and thus behaving conceptually as an electro-optical modulator. The integrated device reported here is the first example, still to be optimized, of a fundamental block to realize an integrated silicon photonic circuit with monolithic integration of the light emitter.