2014 Theses Doctoral

Chip scale low dimensional materials: optoelectronics and nonlinear optics

Gu, Tingyi

The CMOS foundry infrastructure enables integration of high density, high performance optical transceivers. We developed integrated devices that assemble resonators, waveguide, tapered couplers, pn junction and electrodes. Not only the volume standard manufacture in silicon foundry is promising to low-lost optical components operating at IR and mid-IR range, it also provides a robust platform for revealing new physical phenomenon.
The thesis starts from comparison between photonic crystal and micro-ring resonators based on chip routers, showing photonic crystal switches have small footprint, consume low operation power, but its higher linear loss may require extra energy for signal amplification. Different designs are employed in their implementation in optical signal routing on chip. The second part of chapter 2 reviews the graphene based optoelectronic devices, such as modulators, lasers, switches and detectors, potential for group IV optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC).
In chapter 3, the highly efficient thermal optic control could act as on-chip switches and (transmittance) tunable filters. Local temperature tuning compensates the wavelength differences between two resonances, and separate electrode is used for fine tuning of optical pathways between two resonators. In frequency domain, the two cavity system also serves as an optical analogue of Autler-Towns splitting, where the cavity-cavity resonance detuning is controlled by the length of pathway (phase) between them. The high thermal sensitivity of cavity resonance also effectively reflects the heat distribution around the nanoheaters, and thus derives the thermal conductivity in the planar porous suspended silicon membrane.
Chapter 4 and 5 analyze graphene-silicon photonic crystal cavities with high Q and small mode volume. With negligible nonlinear response to the milliwatt laser excitation, the monolithic silicon PhC turns into highly nonlinear after transferring the single layer graphene with microwatt excitation, reflected by giant two photon absorption induced optical bistability, low power dynamic switching and regenerative oscillation, and coherent four-wave-mixing from high Kerr coefficient. The single layer graphene lowers the operational power 20 times without enhancing the linear propagation loss.
Chapter 6 moves onto high Q ring resonator made of plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition grown silicon nitride (PECVD SiN). PECVD SiN grown at low temperature is compatible with CMOS processing. The resonator enhanced light-matter interaction leads to molecular absorption induced quality factor enhancement and thermal bistability, near the critical coupling region.
In chapter 7, carrier transport and recombination in InAs quantum dots based GaAs solar cells are characterized by current-voltage curve. The parameters include voltage dependent ideality factor, series and shunt resistance. The device variance across the wafer is analyzed and compared. Quantum dots offers extra photocurrent by extending the absorption edge further into IR range, but the higher recombination rate increases the dark current as well. Different dots sized enabled by growth techniques are employed for comparison.