Crack-Free Silicon-Nitride-on-Insulator Nonlinear Circuits for Continuum Generation in the ${C}$ -Band

Houssein El Dirani (1) , Marco Casale (1) , Sebastien Kerdiles (1) , Carole Socquet-Clerc (1) , Xavier Letartre (2) , Christelle Monat (2) , Corrado Sciancalepore (1)

1 CEA-LETI - Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives - Laboratoire d'Electronique et de Technologie de l'Information
2 INL - Photonique - INL - Nanophotonique

We report on the fabrication and testing of silicon-nitride-on-insulator (SiNOI) nonlinear photonic circuits for complementary metal oxide semiconductor compatible monolithic co-integration with silicon-based optoelectronics. In particular, a process has been developed to fabricate low-loss crack-free Si3N4 730-nm-thick films for Kerr-based nonlinear functions featuring full process compatibility with existing silicon photonics and front-end Si optoelectronics. Experimental evidence shows that 2.1-cm-long nanowires based on such crack-free silicon nitride films are capable of generating a frequency continuum spanning 1515-1575 nm via self-phase modulation. This work paves the way to time-stable power-efficient Kerr-based broadband sources featuring full process compatibility with Si photonic integrated circuits (Si-PICs) on CMOS-lines. Index Terms-Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS), photonic integrated circuits (PICs), frequency continuum, nonlinear optics, silicon-nitride-on-insulator (SiNOI).

Mots clés: photonic integrated circuits (PICs); Complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS); nonlinear optics; frequency continuum; silicon-nitride-on-insulator (SiNOI)

Domaines: Optique / photonique

Houssein El Dirani, Marco Casale, Sebastien Kerdiles, Carole Socquet-Clerc, Xavier Letartre, et al.. Crack-Free Silicon-Nitride-on-Insulator Nonlinear Circuits for Continuum Generation in the ${C}$ -Band. IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, 2018, 30 (4), pp.355-358. ⟨10.1109/LPT.2018.2790045⟩. ⟨hal-01917904⟩