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Definition: photonic technology based on silicon chips
For applications in microelectronics, an extremely powerful technology platform based on silicon chips has been developed in the past decades. This is now the basis of complex microprocessors, large memory circuits, and other digital and analog electronics. Currently, a question of high interest is whether this technology platform can also be utilized in the area of photonics, leading to silicon-based photonic integrated circuits. Such circuits could be used e.g. to establish very fast communication between circuit boards, between chips on a board, or even within single chips. There is a strong need for such fast communication links, because the rapid progress of microprocessors may soon be severely limited by the transmission bandwidth capabilities of electronic connections, made e.g. of copper. Optical data transmission allows for much higher data rates and would at the same time eliminate problems resulting from electromagnetic interference. The technology may also be useful for other areas of optical communications, such as fiber to the home.
Silicon photonics can also be considered from the viewpoint of photonics, which is so far based on other materials. (Silica = amorphous SiO2 is common in photonics, e.g. in silica fibers, but not elementary silicon.) The implementation of silicon-based photonic devices, maybe even electrically pumped silicon lasers and silicon amplifiers, could possibly lead to much smaller and much cheaper photonic devices, making accessible a range of applications which so far have been impossible already for reasons of too high cost.
While the possible merits of silicon-based photonics are huge, there are also very substantial challenges for such a technology:
- Having an indirect bandgap, silicon is a very inefficient light emitter. Although various tricks have been developed to get around this, the laser or amplifier performance of silicon-based devices cannot compete with that for other approaches, based e.g. on gallium arsenide or indium phosphide.
- The bandgap of silicon is also larger than desirable, making it impossible to detect light in the telecom spectral regions around 1.5 μm and 1.3 μm.
- Silicon has no χ(2) nonlinearity, making it impossible to realize electro-optic modulators with this material.
- The heat dissipated by a laser source on a chip might well be more than is convenient.
- Optical connections often require very precise alignment, which requires improved alignment technologies for efficient mass production.
It is possible to fabricate hybrid devices where the photonic functions are provided by structures made of II-IV semiconductors (with a direct bandgap and electro-optic properties), such as indium phosphide, and these are placed on a silicon chip containing the bulk of the electronic components. One class of techniques is based on epitaxial regrowth procedures, which are complicated and often greatly reduce the yield. For that reason, hybrid devices tend to be expensive and are strongly limited in complexity. Another approach, as recently demonstrated by Intel in a collaboration with the University of Santa Barbara [10], is to apply a sophisticated bonding process to combine a silicon chip containing waveguides with an indium phosphide chip providing the optical gain. Still, all-silicon solutions, arising from the "siliconization of photonics", would probably be more suitable for widespread application.
The following paragraphs shortly describe the status of research concerning basic building blocks of silicon photonics:
- For guiding light in waveguides, silicon is quite suitable. There are e.g. rib waveguides with oxide cladding, exhibiting propagation losses of well below 1 dB/cm. The transparency range of silicon extends from ∼1.1 μm to the far-infrared region. The tight mode confinement allows sharp bends without excessive bend losses.
- For laser light sources and for amplifiers, the indirect bandgap of silicon is hardly usable. Some progress has been achieved with porous silicon and with silicon nanoparticles in silica, but the achieved performance can not compete with that e.g. of indium-phosphide-based devices. However, silicon allows for efficient Raman amplification, because the Raman gain coefficient of silicon is very high and the used waveguides confine the mode to a very small area. Although a Raman laser [4,11,14] or amplifier [13] still requires an optical pump source, it can be useful for accessing longer wavelength regions, and possibly even to generate multiple wavelengths [14]. Another approach is to provide the active function in a III-V semiconductor material (see above), which is bonded to a silicon waveguide structure; the evanescent field of the silicon waveguide can then be strong enough for efficient amplification [10].
- Silicon-based optical modulators can be realized with Mach-Zehnder interferometers and phase modulation via a change of carrier density [6]: injecting carriers with an electrode changes the refractive index in one arm of the interferometer, which translates the phase change into a change of power transmission. Transmission bandwidths of multiple Gbit/s can be achieved.
- A silicon photodetector (photodiode) is normally sensitive only for light with wavelengths below 1.1 μm, corresponding to the bandgap. Photodetectors for telecommunication wavelengths around 1.5 μm or 1.3 μm are possible with silicon-germanium alloys (SiGe) [7]. Problems arise from the resulting lattice mismatch, which leads to crystal defects.
It is clear that an enormous amount of work, corresponding to huge capital investments, is still required before silicon photonics can be established as a key technology. However, the potential merits motivate big players such as Intel to seriously pursue this development. If it is successful, it can lead to a very powerful technology with huge benefits for photonics and microelectronics and their applications.
Bibliography
| [1] | B. Jalali et al., "Advances in silicon-on-insulator optoelectronics", Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 4 (6), 938 (1998) |
| [2] | D. A. B. Miller, "Optical interconnects to silicon", IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 6 (6), 1312 (2000) |
| [3] | Papers and articles from Intel, http://www.intel.com/technology/silicon/sp/doc.htm |
| [4] | H. Rong et al., "A continuous-wave Raman silicon laser", Nature 433, 725 (2005) |
| [5] | O. Boyraz and B. Jalali, "Demonstration of a silicon Raman laser", Opt. Express 12 (21), 5269 (2004) |
| [6] | L. Liao et al., "High speed silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator", Opt. Express 13 (8), 3129 (2005) |
| [7] | L. Liao et al., "Tensile strained Ge p-i-n photodetectors on Si platform for C and L band telecommunications", Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 11110 (2005) |
| [8] | B. Jalali, "Raman-based silicon photonics" (review paper, containing many useful references), IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 12 (3), 412 (2006) |
| [9] | H. Rong et al., "Monolithic integrated Raman silicon laser", Opt. Express 14 (15), 6705 (2006) |
| [10] | A. W. Fang et al., "Electrically pumped hybrid AlGaInAs-silicon evanescent laser", Opt. Express 14 (20), 9203 (2006) |
| [11] | H. Rong et al., "Low-threshold continuous-wave Raman silicon laser", Nat. Photonics 1 (4), 232 (2007) |
| [12] | B. Jalali, "Teaching silicon new tricks", Nat. Photonics 1 (4), 193 (2007) |
| [13] | V. Raghunathan et al., "Demonstration of a mid-infrared silicon Raman amplifier", Opt. Express 15 (22), 14355 (2007) |
| [14] | H. Rong et al., "A cascaded silicon Raman laser", Nat. Photonics 2, 170 (2008) |
See also: photonics, photonic integrated circuits, integrated optics, optoelectronics, Raman lasers, amplifiers, optical modulators
This encyclopedia is authored by Dr. Rüdiger Paschotta, the founder and executive of RP Photonics Consulting GmbH. Contact this distinguished expert in laser technology, nonlinear optics and fiber optics, and find out how his technical consulting services (e.g. product designs, problem solving, independent evaluations, or staff training) could become very valuable for your business!
