Design and Fabrication of Suspended Indium Phosphide Waveguides for MEMS-Actuated Optical Buffering

We present the design and fabrication of suspended optical waveguides on indium phosphide platform for use in an optical buffer device with MEMS actuation, in which the optical delay can be achieved by changing the spacing of the waveguides by electrostatic actuation. The optical and mechanical properties of the waveguides and pillar supports are modeled, and different MEMS actuation schemes are simulated. We also present fabrication and characterization results of the epitaxially grown sample structure and of the suspended waveguide device, exhibiting two parallel waveguides with submicron dimensions separated by a 400-nm air gap, and suspended at 40-μm intervals by S-shaped supports.

[1]  R. Langenhorst,et al.  Fiber loop optical buffer , 1996 .

[2]  Jacob B. Khurgin,et al.  Optical buffers based on slow light in electromagnetically induced transparent media and coupled resonator structures: comparative analysis , 2005 .

[3]  David Buckingham,et al.  Optical Properties. (Book Reviews: Modern Nonlinear Optics.) , 1994 .

[4]  Peter Horak,et al.  Design of dual-core optical fibers with NEMS functionality. , 2014, Optics express.

[5]  G. Duan,et al.  Recent Advances on InAs/InP Quantum Dash Based Semiconductor Lasers and Optical Amplifiers Operating at 1.55 $\mu$m , 2007, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[6]  Toshihiko Baba,et al.  Low Loss Intersection of Si Photonic Wire Waveguides , 2004 .

[7]  R. Ghodssi,et al.  InP-based optical waveguide MEMS switches with evanescent coupling mechanism , 2005, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[8]  Kazuhiro Hane,et al.  Phase-shifter using submicron silicon waveguide couplers with ultra-small electro-mechanical actuator. , 2010, Optics express.

[9]  T. Alegre.  Electromagnetically Induced Transparency and Slow Light with Optomechanics , 2012 .

[10]  R. Ghodssi,et al.  Monolithic suspended optical waveguides for InP MEMS , 2004, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[11]  Hemantha K. Wickramasinghe,et al.  Atomic force microscope–force mapping and profiling on a sub 100‐Å scale , 1987 .

[12]  Han Yan,et al.  Electrostatic pull-in instability in MEMS/NEMS: A review , 2014 .

[13]  Thomas B. Jones,et al.  Electromechanics of Particles , 1995 .

[14]  M. Lipson.  Guiding, modulating, and emitting light on Silicon-challenges and opportunities , 2005, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[15]  Lin Zhu,et al.  Transmission and group delay of microring coupled-resonator optical waveguides. , 2006, Optics letters.

[16]  Kazuhiro Hane,et al.  Single and multiple optical switches that use freestanding silicon nanowire waveguide couplers , 2012, Light: Science & Applications.

[17]  F. Xia,et al.  Ultracompact optical buffers on a silicon chip , 2007 .

[18]  Michal Lipson,et al.  High confinement suspended micro-ring resonators in silicon-on-insulator. , 2006, Optics express.

[19]  E. Ollier.  Optical MEMS devices based on moving waveguides , 2002 .

[20]  F. Payne,et al.  A theoretical analysis of scattering loss from planar optical waveguides , 1994 .

[21]  Y. Vlasov,et al.  Losses in single-mode silicon-on-insulator strip waveguides and bends. , 2004, Optics express.

[22]  Michal Lipson,et al.  High-speed electro-optic control of the optical quality factor of a silicon microcavity. , 2008, Optics letters.

[23]  Gerber,et al.  Atomic force microscope. , 1986, Physical review letters.

[24]  J. Soole,et al.  InGaAs metal-semiconductor-metal photodetectors for long wavelength optical communications , 1991 .

[25]  Peter Horak,et al.  Continuously tunable optical buffer with a dual silicon waveguide design. , 2011, Optics express.

[26]  M. Hopkinson,et al.  Broadband quantum cascade laser emitting from 7.7to8.4μm operating up to 340K , 2007 .