G. Cocorullo et al., AMORPHOUS-SILICON WAVE-GUIDES AND LIGHT MODULATORS FOR INTEGRATED PHOTONICS REALIZED BY LOW-TEMPERATURE PLASMA-ENHANCED CHEMICAL-VAPOR-DEPOSITION, Optics letters, 21(24), 1996, pp. 2002-2004
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.