Laser-fabricated low-loss single-mode waveguiding devices in GaAs

A maskless laser etching technique was used to fabricate novel waveguides and waveguiding structures directly into the surface of GaAs/AlGaAs heterostructures. The modal and loss properties of these groove-defined structures have been measured as a function of waveguide geometry, and low-loss single-mode waveguides have been produced. The technique was used to fabricate various passive optical devices in a single processing step. Waveguide bend and branch losses were measured and are comparable to those in conventionally fabricated devices. Experimental results are described by simple theoretical models. The technique is attractive as a prototyping tool for developing and testing new integrated optic circuits     

Design and fabrication of zinc oxide thin-film ridge waveguides on silicon substrate with ultraviolet amplified spontaneous emission

Zinc oxide (ZnO) thin-film ridge waveguides have been designed and fabricated on n-type (100) silicon substrate. A filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique is used to deposit high-crystal-quality ZnO thin films on lattice-mismatched silicon substrates at 230/spl deg/C. A ridge waveguide of width /spl sim/2 /spl mu/m and height /spl sim/0.1 /spl mu/m is defined on the ZnO thin film by plasma etching. Room-temperature amplified spontaneous emission is observed with peak wavelength at /spl sim/385 nm under 355-nm optical excitation. It is found that the net optical gain of the ZnO thin-film ridge waveguides can be as large as 120 cm/sup -1/ at a pump intensity of /spl sim/1.9 MW/cm/sup 2/.     

Low-loss singlemode amorphous silicon waveguides

Amorphous silicon waveguides were obtained by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition and anisotropic plasma etching. Rectangular multimode waveguides as well as singlemode ridge waveguides were fabricated. Scattered light measurements at 1550 nm (1300 nm) wavelength showed a low propagation loss of /spl les/0.5 dB/cm (1.6 dB/cm) for multimode waveguides and 2.0 dB/cm (5.0 dB/cm) for highly-confined singlemode waveguides.     

Compact and Economical MMI Optical Power Splitter for Optical Communication

A 1 X 8 GaAs/GaAlAs optical power splitter based on a MultiMode Interference (MMI) coupler is presented. The input and output single mode waveguides are optimized by the Discrete Spectral Index Method (DSIM) and a moderate square spot on the output in deepetched rib waveguides is obtained. The fabrication tolerance has been analyzed by the Finite Difference Beam Propagation Method (FDBPM). The device was fabricated by the dry etching technique and the near-field output obtained. The device shows polarization-insensitive, large fabrication tolerance, low theoretical excess loss and low power imbalance.     

ZnO–ZnMgO Multiple Quantum-Well Ridge Waveguide Lasers

ZnO-ZnMgO multiple quantum-well (MQW) thin-film waveguides with ridge structures have been fabricated on quartz substrates. Low-temperature deposition of high-quality ZnO-ZnMgO MQW thin films was achieved by filtered cathodic vacuum arc technique. A ridge is defined on the thin film by plasma etching. Room-temperature lasing with a peak wavelength at 378 nm of 1.5-nm well width was observed under 355-nm optical excitation. Exciton-exciton scattering was attributed to the amplified spontaneous emission observed from the MQW waveguide. The net optical gain can be larger than 80 cm^-1 at a pump intensity of 2 MW/cm² .     

Diffusion-limited etching for compact, low-loss semiconductor integrated optics

It is shown that diffusion-limited wet chemical etching can be used to fabricated single-mode GaAs/AlGaAs rib waveguides suitable for compact circular waveguide bends (300- mu m radius). The waveguides exhibit lower propagation losses (1-4 dB/cm at 1.52- mu m wavelength) than previously reported guides fabricated for compact bend applications by dry etching. To study the radius dependence of waveguide bend loss, a set of nested 90 degrees circular bends was fabricated simultaneously on a single chip.<>     

Fabrication of photonic waveguides in sulfide chalcogenide glasses by selective wet-etching

A selective wet-etching method for micro-fabricating As₂S₃ glass ridge waveguides, using CS₂ solution with iodine as an oxidising reactant, has been developed. The proposed method is based on photo-induced changes in chalcogenide glasses, and therefore can be free of photomasks and photoresists. The optical properties of such etched ridge waveguides have been tested and they exhibit a more than 2 dB/cm loss reduction compared to laser direct-written channel waveguides.     

Low-loss high-silica single-mode channel waveguides

Low-loss high-silica single-mode channel optical waveguides of 0.1 dB/cm have been fabricated on crystal silicon substrates with fibre coupling losses of less than 0.05 dB by flame hydrolysis deposition and reactive ion etching. Directional couplers have also been fabricated with excess loss of 0.5 dB by this waveguide fabrication technique.     

ARROW's in KTiOPO/sub 4/

Antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides (ARROW's) have been designed and fabricated in z-cut KTiOPO/sub 4/ (KTP) by e-beam direct writing and double Rb/spl rlhar2/K ion exchange. Strong diffusion anisotropy allows the realization of ARROW's in this electrooptical crystal. It was found, that argon-ion dry etching of the crystal surface prevents the ion exchange process totally. Using this as a new masking technique, antiresonant reflectors with lateral tolerances of less than 0.1 /spl mu/m could be realized. Typical quasi-single-mode waveguiding and attenuation of about 1.0 dB/cm were observed at /spl lambda/=860 mm, which are in good agreement with our simulations made by the vectorial finite element method and effective index approach.     

Laterally coupled strained MQW ridge waveguide distributed-feedbacklaser diode fabricated by wet-dry hybrid etching process

The fabrication and the characteristics of the laterally coupled GaInAsP-InP quantum-well ridge waveguide distributed-feedback (DFB) lasers are presented. The electron beam (EB) lithography and the wet and dry hybrid etching technique have been used to fabricate the deep grating structures for the DFB lasers on and beside the sidewalls of the narrow ridge waveguide. The threshold current was 18.5 mA at 20°C, and the sidemode suppression ratios (SMSRs) were ensured to be more than 40 dB for as-cleaved devices with various cavity lengths. The continuous-wave output powers of over 15 mW/facet have been observed, while transverse and longitudinal modes have remained in single mode at this output level     

Wet-etched ridge waveguides in y-cut lithium niobate

By the technique of nickel indiffusion proton exchange (NIPE) and the technique of buffered proton exchange (PE) melt, wet-etched ridge waveguides in y-cut LiNbO₃ are fabricated for the first time. The fabricated ridge waveguides have smooth surfaces and are good enough for low-loss waveguides. Moreover, a ridge waveguide Mach-Zehnder modulator in y-cut LiNbO₃ is fabricated. The measured half-wave voltage is about 30% lower than that of a conventional modulator. The wet-etched ridge waveguides in y-cut and z-cut substrates are also characterized for comparison     

Ridged LiNbO/sub 3/ modulators fabricated by a novel oxygen-ion implant/wet-etch technique

This paper demonstrates a new ion implantation and wet-etch technique for fabricating high-quality ridged optical waveguides for high-speed LiNbO/sub 3/-based optical modulators. In addition, the paper demonstrates the fabrication of optical waveguide ridges >3 /spl mu/m in height with 90/spl deg/, and even re-entrant sidewall angles for the first time. The modeling used indicates that 90/spl deg/ (and re-entrant) sidewall ridges can reduce the required modulator drive voltage by 10-20% over modulators with conventional trapezoidal ridge profiles fabricated with reactive ion etching. A 40-Gb/s modulator with a 30-GHz bandwidth, 5.1-V switching voltage at 1 GHz, and a 4.8-dB optical insertion loss is fabricated using the ion implantation/wet-etch process. Fabricated devices showed good stability against accelerated aging, indicating that this process could be used for commercial purposes.     

Fabrication of ridge waveguides in LiNbO3 thin film crystal by proton-exchange accelerated etching

A simple fabrication method of adhered LiNbO₃ ridge waveguides by accelerated etching of the proton-exchanged region is proposed and demonstrated. The waveguides were fabricated and tested at 1.55 mum wavelength. Strongly confined guided modes were obtained. The waveguides are suitable for efficient nonlinear-optic wavelength conversion devices.     

Fabrication of single-mode polymeric optical waveguides bylaser-beam writing

A laser-beam writing system is developed for large-area optical waveguide fabrication. Single-mode embedded channel optical waveguides are successfully fabricated on both 4- and 8-in silicon substrates using deuterated fluoromethacrylate polymers by laser-beam writing in photoresist and dry etching. The propagation loss of the waveguides is as low as 0.1 dB/cm at 1.3 μm     

由W0.95Ni0.05金属薄膜形成光弹波导结构的热稳定性

InGaAsP/InP双导 质结构外延片在直流负偏压120V作用下,利用射溅射和光刻剥离技术在样品表面淀积厚为110nm的W0.95Ni0.05金属薄膜应变条,并在该应条下的半导体内形成了对InGaAsP/InP双异质结构侧向光具有良好限制作用的光弹波导结构。W0.95 Ni0.05金属薄膜及由其形成的光弹波导器件在氢氮混合气体的保护下,分别在250℃、350℃、450℃、450℃和600℃温度下各退火30min以后,W0.95Ni0.05金属薄膜中压应变减少了十分之一。光弹波导器件输出椭圆形近场光模长、短轴这比由原来的2.0增加到2.2(对2um条宽）和2.5增加到2.9(对4um条宽）。实验结果证明,这种波导结构具有很高的热稳定性。     

Fabrication of tapered couplers in GaAs/GaAlAs rib waveguides

Tapered couplers have been fabricated in GaAs/GaAlAs single-mode rib waveguides. A new etching technique has been used to fabricate transitions of 1 μm over lengths of approximately 160 to 300 μm. Losses for the TE and TM fundamental modes have been measured at a wavelength of 1.3 μm     

Silicon raised strip waveguides based on silicon and silicon dioxide thermal bonding

Si raised strip waveguides on SiO/sub 2/ have been proposed and fabricated, which are based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material. In the waveguides, the SOI technique utilizes silicon and silicon dioxide thermal bonding and back-polishing. An anisotropic etchant is used to produce the trapezoidal Si raised strip waveguides by etching the Si film down to the SiO/sub 2/ etch-stop buried layer. The transmission losses of the Si waveguides are measured to be less than 0.2 dB/cm at the 1.3 /spl mu/m wavelength for the lowest mode TE-like mode.     

Lithium niobate ridge waveguides fabricated by wet etching

The authors report a novel method for fabricating proton exchanged LiNbO₃ ridge waveguides by the wet etching of proton-exchanged LiNbO₃. To demonstrate a simple and easy application of the LiNbO₃ ridge waveguide, a Mach-Zehnder interferometric modulator with selfaligned electrode was fabricated     

Wideband CMOS Compatible Capacitive MEMS Switch for RF Applications

This letter presents the design, fabrication, and characterization of a novel capacitive radio frequency (RF) microelectromechanical system (MEMS) switch. The switch uses thermal actuation and a finger structure for capacitive coupling. The switch is CMOS process-compatible and uses a two step maskless reactive ion etching (RIE) micromachining technique for post-processing. The measurement results show that the insertion loss is 1.6 dB and isolation is 33 dB at 5.4 GHz. The applications of this switch are ISM/WLAN CMOS front-end reconfigurable RF circuits such as voltage controlled oscillators, filters, and matching networks.      

Large-area wafer processing for 0.78-μm AlGaAs laser diodes

Large-area wafer processing for buried-ridge loss-guided inner-stripe AlGaAs laser diodes (LD's) has been developed for the first time. High uniformity of ridge waveguides on a 3-in wafer is realized by introducing selective wet etching. The standard deviations of the ridge width and the remaining p-cladding layer thickness on either side of the ridge, which have a great influence on the device characteristics, are 0.07 μm and 0.01 μm, respectively. As a result, good uniformity of laser characteristics has been obtained, for example, the distribution of full width at half maximum angles of far-field pattern in the direction parallel to the junction plane (&thetas;//) is only 0.22° (1σ) for 1000 chips across a 3-in wafer