High aspect ratio etching and characterization of 2D-photonic crystals in InP/InGaAsP/InP heterostructures

• We report on the fabrication and characterization of 2D photonic crystals (PhCs) in InP/InGaAsP/InP heterostructures. It is demonstrated that Ar/C12 based chemically assisted ion beam etching (CAIBE) is a very promising method to obtain high aspect ratio etching of PhCs in the InP-based materials. With this process, it is possible to obtain PC-holes as deep as 3 microns even for feature (PhC-hole) sizes as small as 200-250 nm. The optical characteristics of the fabricated PhC-based elements/devices such as line-defect waveguides, in-plane resonant cavities and drop-filter based on contra-directional coupling will be reported. The devices were measured using end-fire coupling and the obtained results were simulated using the 2D finite difference time domain (FDTD) method including an effective loss-approximation. The etched PhC-waveguides show low transmission losses, less than 1 dB/100 mum. A quality factor of 400 for a 6 micron long cavity with 6-hole mirrors is obtained. Finally, drop-functionality in a PhC-based filter using contra-directional coupling is demonstrated.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Elektroteknik och elektronik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Electrical Engineering, Electronic Engineering, Information Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

photonic crystals

photonic crystal waveguides

optical cavities

optical filters

drop filters

InP

chemically assisted ion beam etching

reactive ion beam etching

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

kon (subject category)