Submicrometer-wide amorphous and polycrystalline anatase TiO_2 waveguides for microphotonic devices

Submicrometer-wide amorphous and polycrystalline anatase TiO2 waveguides for microphotonic devices.

We demonstrate amorphous and polycrystalline anatase TiO(2) thin films and submicrometer-wide waveguides with promising optical properties for microphotonic devices. We deposit both amorphous and polycrystalline anatase TiO(2) using reactive sputtering and define waveguides using electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. For the amorphous TiO(2), we obtain propagation losses of 0.12 ±...

Precision Fabrication Techniques for Microphotonic Devices

Microphotonic devices seek to miniaturize and integrate the components needed for optical networking. These devices have exacting fabrication tolerances for feature size, patternplacement, and surface roughness. Careful control of feature size is critical for resonant structures and phase-matching between coupled waveguides, while pattern-placement is essential for devices that rely on long-ran...

Strategies for successful realization of strong confinement microphotonic devices

Microphotonic devices employing strong confinement of light are of growing importance for key applications such as telecommunication and optical interconnects. They have unique and desirable characteristics but their extreme sensitivity to dimensional variations makes them difficult to successfully implement. Here, we discuss strategies towards the successful realization of strong confinement d...

Designs and Simulations of Silicon-based Microphotonic Devices

Accurate measurement of scattering and absorption loss in microphotonic devices.

We present a simple measurement and analysis technique to determine the fraction of optical loss due to both radiation (scattering) and linear absorption in microphotonic components. The method is generally applicable to optical materials in which both nonlinear and linear absorption are present and requires only limited knowledge of absolute optical power levels, material parameters, and the s...