FUNCTIONAL-PROPERTIES OF LUMINESCENT POROUS SILICON AS A COMPONENT OFOPTOELECTRONIC INTEGRATION

The applicability of luminescent porous silicon (PS) to optoelectronic integration has been studied in terms of design and fabrication of Si microphotonic devices such as optical waveguides and planar microcavi ties. The design concept of PS photonic devices is based on precise co ntrol of the refractive index of PS. In these devices, the stacked PS layers are formed on Si substrates simply by modulating the anodizatio n current density. When excited optically and electrically, the device s operate as an edge-emitting waveguide with polarization-mode-selecti ve function or a Fabry-Perot resonator. Some fundamental aspects of th e device operation are discussed. The results presented here suggest t hat PS is an advanced material with useful functions for applications to silicon-based optoelectronic integration. (C) 1997 Academic Press L imited.