LIGHT GUIDING IN OXIDIZED POROUS SILICON OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDES

Oxidised porous silicon optical waveguides (OPSWG) are fabricated and characterised. Porous silicon, selectively formed on boron-doped silic on substrates, is oxidised in order to obtain a channel SiO2 optical w aveguide. Light confinement within the guide is obtained by a decreasi ng profile of the refractive index of the oxidised porous silicon from the centre of the guide toward the surrounding silicon. Light guiding is observed in the whole visible range. Out-of-plane scattering and n ear-field profile are measured. A Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) m icrograph of the resulting waveguide is shown. OPSWG are promising as silicon technology optical links for optoelectronic interconnections i n VLSI integrated circuits. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science S.A.