AlN antiresonant layer ARROW waveguides

Aluminum Nitride (AlN) is a wide band gap III-V semiconductor material often used for optical applications due to its transparency and high refractive index. We have produced and characterized AlN thin films by reactive r.f. magnetron sputtering in different Ar-N2 atmospheres in order to verify the best gaseous concentration to be utilized as anti-resonant layer in ARROW waveguides. The corresponding films were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Rutherford backscattering spectroscopy (RBS), Ellipsometry and visible optical absorption. The AlN properties did not varied significantly between the films deposited with 20 and 70 sccm of N2, most of the variations occurred for films deposited with 18 sccm of N2 or below. The film deposited with 20 sccm was selected to be used as the first ARROW layer in the fabricated waveguides. Two routines were used to design the waveguides parameters, the transfer matrix method (TMM) and the semi-vectorial non-uniform finite difference method (NU-FDM). Attenuation as low as 3.5dB/cm was obtained for a 7 μm wide waveguide.

[1]  Shih-Hsin Hsu,et al.  A novel Mach-Zehnder interferometer based on dual-ARROW structures for sensing applications , 2005, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[2]  T. Chong,et al.  Ion-assisted pulsed laser deposition of aluminum nitride thin films , 2000 .

[3]  A. Hårsta,et al.  Synthesis of highly oriented piezoelectric AlN films by reactive sputter deposition , 2000 .

[4]  Oliver Ambacher,et al.  Piezoelectric properties of polycrystalline AlN thin films for MEMS application , 2006 .

[5]  H. Temkin,et al.  Vibrational properties of AlN grown on 111 -oriented siliconPHYSICAL REVIEW B, VOLUME 63, 125313 , 2001 .

[6]  R. Beresford,et al.  Microstructure of AlN on Si (111) grown by plasma‐assisted molecular beam epitaxy , 1994 .

[7]  A. Pisano,et al.  Single-Chip Multiple-Frequency ALN MEMS Filters Based on Contour-Mode Piezoelectric Resonators , 2007, Journal of Microelectromechanical Systems.

[8]  A. Minardo,et al.  2-D MMI Devices Based on Integrated Hollow ARROW Waveguides , 2007, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[9]  I. Pereyra,et al.  Low temperature plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition boron nitride , 1997 .

[10]  M. Clement,et al.  Influence of crystal properties on the absorption IR spectra of polycrystalline AlN thin films , 2003 .

[11]  Chenglu Lin,et al.  AlN thin films grown by ion-beam-enhanced deposition and its application to SOI materials , 2002 .

[12]  Tae-Woo Lee,et al.  Modal characteristics of ARROW-type vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers , 2001, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[13]  O. Elmazria,et al.  Aluminium nitride films deposition by reactive triode sputtering for surface acoustic wave device applications , 2003 .

[14]  Y. Kokubun,et al.  ARROW-type polarizer utilizing form birefringence in multilayer first cladding , 1993, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[15]  H. A. Jamid.  Frequency-domain PML layer based on the complex mapping of space boundary condition treatment , 2000 .

[16]  L. Eastman,et al.  Effects of a molecular beam epitaxy grown AlN passivation layer on AlGaN/GaN heterojunction field effect transistors , 2004 .

[17]  M. I. Alayo,et al.  Fabrication of PECVD-silicon oxynitride-based optical waveguides , 2004 .