School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Qiyue Lang
School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Zunyue Zhang
School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Haofeng Hu
School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Tiegen Liu
School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China
Jiaqi Wang
College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Corresponding authors.
Zhenzhou Cheng
School of Precision Instrument and Opto-electronics Engineering, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300072, China; Key Laboratory of Opto-electronic Information Technology, Ministry of Education, Tianjin 300072, China; Georgia Tech-Shenzhen Institute, Tianjin University, Shenzhen 518055, China; Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; School of Physics and Electronic Engineering, Xinjiang Normal University, Urumqi 830054, China; Corresponding authors.
Leveraging the low linear and nonlinear absorption loss of silicon at mid-infrared (mid-IR) wavelengths, silicon photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have attracted significant attention for mid-IR applications including optical sensing, spectroscopy, and nonlinear optics. However, mid-IR silicon PICs typically show moderate performance compared to state-of-the-art silicon photonic devices operating in the telecommunication band. Here, we proposed and demonstrated suspended nanomembrane silicon (SNS) PICs with light-guiding within deep-subwavelength waveguide thickness for operation in the short-wavelength mid-IR region. We demonstrated key building components, namely, grating couplers, waveguide arrays, micro-resonators, etc., which exhibit excellent performances in bandwidths, back reflections, quality factors, and fabrication tolerance. Moreover, the results show that the proposed SNS PICs have high compatibility with the multi-project wafer foundry services. Our study provides an unprecedented platform for mid-IR integrated photonics and applications.
