Frontiers in Materials (Nov 2016)

Low-loss slot waveguides with silicon (111) surfaces realized using anisotropic wet etching

  • Kapil Debnath,
  • Ali Z Khokhar,
  • Stuart A Boden,
  • Hideo Arimoto,
  • Swe Zin Oo,
  • Harold M H Chong,
  • Graham Trevor Reed,
  • Shinichi Saito

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmats.2016.00051
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 3

Abstract

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We demonstrate low-loss slot waveguides on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. Waveguides oriented along the (11-2) direction on the Si (110) plane were first fabricated by a standard e-beam lithography and dry etching process. A TMAH based anisotropic wet etching technique was then used to remove any residual side wall roughness. Using this fabrication technique propagation loss as low as 3.7dB/cm was realized in silicon slot waveguide for wavelengths near 1550nm. We also realized low propagation loss of 1dB/cm for silicon strip waveguides.

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