All-optical modulation in a CMOS-compatible amorphous silicon-based device

S. Rao; C. D'Addio; F. G. Della Corte

doi:10.2971/jeos.2012.12023

Journal of the European Optical Society - Rapid publications, Vol 7 (2012)

All-optical modulation in a CMOS-compatible amorphous silicon-based device

S. Rao, C. D'Addio, F. G. Della Corte

Abstract

Active silicon photonic devices, which dynamically control the flow of light, have received significant attention for their use in on-chip optical networks. High-speed active silicon photonic modulators and switches rely on the plasma dispersion effect, where a change in carrier concentration causes a variation in the refractive index. The necessary electron and hole concentration change can be introduced either by optical pumping, or by direct electrical injection and depletion. We demonstrate a fast photoinduced absorption effect in low loss hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) waveguides deposited at a temperature as low as 190Â°C. Significant modulation (M% ~90%) occurs with a 1 mm-long device. We attribute the enhanced modulation to the significantly larger free-carrier absorption effect of a-Si:H. The complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) compatible technology of a-Si:H could be considered as a promising candidate to enable an easy back-end integration with standard microelectronics processes.

Full Text: PDF

Citation Details

Cite this article

References

J. M. Fedeli, L. Di Cioccio, D. Marris-Morini, L. Vivien, R. Orobtchouk, P. Rojo-Romeo, C. Seassal, and F. Mandorlo, "Development of silicon photonics devices using microelectronic tools for the integration on top of a CMOS wafer," Advances in Optical Technologies 2008, 1-15 (2008).

G. Cocorullo, F.G. Della Corte, R. De Rosa, I. Rendina, A. Rubino, and E. Terzini, "Amorphous silicon-based guided-wave passive and active devices for silicon integrated optoelectronics," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electron 4, 997-1001 (1998).

A. Harke, M. Krause, and J. Mueller, "Low-loss single mode amorphous silicon waveguides," Electronics Lett. 41, 1377-1378 (2005).

S. K. Selvaraja, E. Sleeckx, M. Schaekers, W. Bogaerts, D. Van Thourhout, P. Dumon, and R. Baets, "Low-loss amorphous siliconon- insulator technology for photonic integrated circuitry," Opt. Comm. 282, 1767-1770 (2009).

K. Narayanan, A. W. Elshaari, and S. F. Preble, "Broadband alloptical modulation in hydrogenated-amorphous silicon waveguides," Opt. Express 18, 10 (2010).

F. G. Della Corte, S. Rao, M. A. Nigro, F. Suriano, and C. Summonte, "Electro-optically induced absorption in a-Si:H/a-SiCN waveguiding multistacks," Opt. Express 16, 7540-7550 (2008).

S. Rao, F. G. Della Corte, C. Summonte, and F. Suriano, "Electrooptical modulating device based on a CMOS-compatible a-Si:H/a- SiCN multistack waveguide," IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 16(1), 173-178 (2010).

F. G. Della Corte, S. Rao, G. Coppola, and C. Summonte, "Electrooptical modulation at 1550 nm in an as-deposited hydrogenated amorphous silicon p-i-n waveguiding device," Opt. Express 19(4), 2941-2951 (2011).

RSoft Photonics CAD Suite version 5.1.7, by RSOFT Inc.

V. R. Almeida, C. A. Barrios, R. R. Panepucci, and M. Lipson, "All-optical control of light on a silicon chip," Nature 431(7012), 1081-1084 (2004).

P. M. Fauchet, D. Hulin, R. Vanderhaghen, A. Mourchild, and W. L. Nighan Jr., "The properties of free carriers in amorphous silicon," J. Non-Cryst. Sol. 141, 76-87 (1992).