An All-Silicon Passive Optical Diode

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 335; no. 6067; pp. 447 - 450
• Main Authors: Fan, Li, Wang, Jian, Varghese, Leo T., Shen, Hao, Niu, Ben, Xuan, Yi, Weiner, Andrew M., Qi, Minghao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 27.01.2012; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: All optical circuits; Applied sciences; Circuit properties; Design. Technologies. Operation analysis. Testing; Diodes; Electric, optical and optoelectronic circuits; Electronics; Equipment Design; Exact sciences and technology; Information Processing; Integrated circuits; Laser power; Lasers; Lasers, Semiconductor; Metal oxide semiconductors; Metal oxides; Micrometers; Nonlinearity; Optical and optoelectronic circuits; Optical data processing; Optical filters; Optical Phenomena; Optics; Photonics; Semiconductor diodes; Semiconductor electronics. Microelectronics. Optoelectronics. Solid state devices; Semiconductors; Silicon; Silicones; Transmission lines; Wavelengths; Optical information processing; Input signal; Complementary MOS technology; Silicon diodes; Compact design; All optical circuit; Non linear phenomenon
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1214383

A passive optical diode effect would be useful for on-chip optical information processing but has been difficult to achieve. Using a method based on optical nonlinearity, we demonstrate a forward-backward transmission ratio of up to 28 decibels within telecommunication wavelengths. Our device, which uses two silicon rings 5 micrometers in radius, is passive yet maintains optical nonreciprocity for a broad range of input power levels, and it performs equally well even if the backward input power is higher than the forward input. The silicon optical diode is ultracompact and is compatible with current complementary metal-oxide semiconductor processing.