Photonics (Aug 2024)

Design and Fabrication of High-Quality Two-Dimensional Silicon-Based Photonic Crystal Optical Cavity with Integrated Waveguides

  • Sohail Muhammad,
  • Dingwei Chen,
  • Chengwei Xian,
  • Jun Zhou,
  • Zhongke Lei,
  • Pengju Kuang,
  • Zhe Li,
  • Guangjun Wen,
  • Yongjun Huang

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3390/photonics11080753
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 8
p. 753

Abstract

Read online

The emergences of silicon-based photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides and two-dimensional (2D) PhC line-defect optical cavities have revolutionized the field of integrated photonics. In this paper, we design and fabricate a high-quality (high-Q) 2D silicon-based PhC optical cavity with integrated waveguides. We employ the 2D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to simulate the cavity, considering two different thicknesses: 0.5 μm and 0.25 μm. By optimizing the line-defect and air-slot widths for the integrated PhC waveguides, we are able to achieve remarkable Q-factors for the PhC optical cavity. With a silicon thickness of 0.5 μm, the high-Q achieves an impressively high value of 8.01 × 106, while at a silicon thickness of 0.25 μm, it achieves 1.91 × 107. This research highlights the importance of design optimization and fabrication techniques in achieving high-Q optical devices using PhC and silicon-based structures.

Keywords