FOR 653:  Active and Tuneable Microphotonic Systems Based on Silicon-On-Insulator (SOI)

• Subject Area: Computer Science, Systems and Electrical Engineering
• Term: from 2006 to 2015
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 15008671

For more than one decade silicon photonics has been an attractive part of Integrated Optics. A particularly rapid growth took place in recent years (see, e.g., G.T. Reed: "The optical age of silicon", in Nature, 2004). The full compatibility of silicon-on-insulator photonics (SOI photonics) with the technological processes of microelectronics opens, in the medium-term, the way to achieve a highly compact integration of electronic and photonic components on a common substrate. The high index contrast of SOI waveguides promises the feasibility of extremely small radii of curvature and very compact components with low waveguide loss down to less than 0.1 dB/cm. Essential material properties of silicon are its broad transparent spectral range from the near infrared range up to the mid-infrared as well as its excellent suitability for photonic crystal structures. Recent progress reported in literature points to the prospect that SOI technology will be established in the future as a platform for Integrated Optics.
Within the initial period of the Research Unit central problems will be addressed which - for the time being - block the way towards a faster progress of SOI photonics. In particular, efficient amplifiers and lasers based on stimulated Raman scattering are to be investigated and realised, tuning and modulation schemes (using micromechanical means as well as organic and anorganic electrooptic cladding materials), and basic components such as Bragg gratings, waveguide mirrors and long period gratings are on the road map. In addition, programmable resonators, tuneable dispersion compensators and pulse formers shall be demonstrated. Looking ahead to a second period of the joint project, the objective is to combine such components and possibly further ones to form a complex integrated-optical system in order to demonstrate the integration on a small area with technological means compatible with microelectronics.

• DFG Programme: Research Units

Projects

• Abstimmbare polarisationsunabhängige Koppler, Polarisationsdreher und Gitterkoppler in SOI-Nanowire-Technologie (Applicant Müller, Jörg )
• Elektrooptisch abstimmbare und verstärkende Slow Light Silizium Photonik (Applicant Eich, Manfred )
• Gitterbasierte Diagnostik für SOI-Wellenleiterstrukturen (Applicant Brinkmeyer, Ernst )
• Hoch und niedrig dispersive periodische und aperiodische mikrophotonische Strukturen in Silicon-On-Insulator (Applicant Eich, Manfred )
• Koordination der Forschungsgruppe 653 (Applicant Brinkmeyer, Ernst )
• Optische Integrationstechnologie auf SOI-Basis (Applicant Petermann, Ph.D., Klaus )
• Raman-Verstärkung in Silizium-Wellenleitern (Applicant Brinkmeyer, Ernst )
• Steuerung von Ladungsträgerdynamik in SOI-Wellenleitern mittels BICMOS-Technologie (Applicant Tillack, Bernd )
• Verlustarme optische Systeme mit polarisationsunabhängigen SOI-Wellenleitern und Koppelstrukturen für die Kommunikations- und Messtechnik (Applicant Müller, Jörg )
• Wellenleiterstrukturen und -Komponenten für mehrlagige integriert-optische SOI-Systeme (Applicant Müller, Jörg )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Ernst Brinkmeyer