AMORPHOUS-SILICON WAVE-GUIDES AND LIGHT MODULATORS FOR INTEGRATED PHOTONICS REALIZED BY LOW-TEMPERATURE PLASMA-ENHANCED CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION

A new amorphous silicon waveguide is realized by use of amorphous sili con carbon as cladding material. The structure is characterized both e xperimentally and theoretically, and its application for optical inter connections in photonic integrated circuits on silicon motherboards is proposed. The fabrication process is based on low-temperature (220 de grees C) plasma-enhanced chemical-vapor deposition and is compatible w ith standard microelectronic processes. Propagation losses of 1.8 dB/c m have been measured at the fiber-optic wavelength of 1.3 mu m. A stro ng thermo-optic coefficient has been measured in this material at this wavelength and exploited for the realization of a light-intensity mod ulator based on a Fabry-Perot interferometer that is tunable by temper ature. (C) 1996 Optical Society of America.