International Business Machines Corporation

Charles Caër

Lukas Czornomaz

Herwig Hahn

Bert Jan Offrein

Stefan Abel

Yannick Baumgartner

Gustavo Ferreira Villares

A silicon photonic device is provided including a substrate; a passive silicon optical device, on the substrate; an electrically insulating cladding layer that encapsulates the optical device on the substrate, the cladding layer including a trench patterned therein, so as for the trench to at least partly cover the optical device, on a side of the latter, the trench filled with an electrically insulating, thermally conducting material, having a refractive index that is lower than a refractive index of silicon, thereby forming a heat conduction channel toward the optical device; and a heating element, in contact with the thermally conducting material. A method of operating such silicon photonic devices is also provided.

Silicon photonic tunable device with thermo-optic channel

Embodiments of the invention are directed to a method of fabrication of an electro-optical device. A non-limiting example of the method relies on a waveguide. A trench is opened in the waveguide and a stack of optically active semiconductor materials is directly grown from a bottom wall of the trench and are stacked along a stacking direction that is perpendicular to a main plane of the waveguide. The stack is partly encapsulated in the waveguide, whereby a bottom layer of the stack is in direct contact with a waveguide core material, whereas upper portions of opposite, lateral sides of the stack are exposed. An insulating layer of material is deposited to cover exposed surfaces of the waveguide and structured to form a lateral growth template. Contact layers are laterally grown due to the lateral growth template formed. The contact layers can include an n-doped and p-doped contact layers.

Compact electro-optical devices with laterally grown contact layers

Embodiments are directed to the fabrication of an electro-optical device. The device comprises the forming of an active region with a stack of III-V semiconductor gain materials stacked along a stacking direction z. The active region may be formed as a slab having several lateral surface portions, each extending parallel to the stacking direction z. The device further comprises selectively re-growing two paired elements, which include: a pair of doped layers of III-V semiconductor materials (an n-doped layer and a p-doped layer); and a pair of lateral waveguide cores. The two paired elements may be laterally arranged, two-by-two, on opposite sides of the slab. The elements distinctly adjoin respective ones of the lateral surface portions of the slab, so as for these elements to be separated from each other by the slab. The disclosure may be further directed to related silicon photonics devices.

Method of forming an electro-optical device with lateral current injection regions

A lateral current injection electro-optical device includes a slab having a pair of structured, doped layers of III-V semiconductor materials arranged side-by-side in the slab, the pair including an n-doped layer and a p-doped layer, each of the p-doped layer and the n-doped layer includes a two-dimensional photonic crystal, and a separation section extending between the pair of structured layers, the separation section separates the pair of structured layers, the separation section includes current blocking trenches, and an active region of III-V semiconductor gain materials between the current blocking trenches that form a photonic crystal cavity.

Lateral current injection electro-optical device with well-separated doped III-V layers structured as photonic crystals

Embodiments of the disclosure are directed to a lateral current injection electro-optical device. The device comprises an active region with a stack of III-V semiconductor gain materials stacked along a stacking direction z. The active region may be formed as a slab having several lateral surface portions, each extending parallel to the stacking direction z. The device further comprises two paired elements, which include: a pair of doped layers of III-V semiconductor materials (an n-doped layer and a p-doped layer); and a pair of lateral waveguide cores. The two paired elements may be laterally arranged, two-by-two, on opposite sides of the slab. The elements distinctly adjoin respective ones of the lateral surface portions of the slab, so as for these elements to be separated from each other by the slab. The disclosure may be further directed to related silicon photonics devices and fabrication methods.

Electro-optical device with lateral current injection regions

A device may include a substrate and an active region. This active region may include a stack of semiconductor gain materials stacked along a stacking direction. The latter may extend substantially perpendicular to a plane of the substrate. The active region may be furthermore tapered so as to widen toward the substrate. In addition, the device may include a pair of doped layers semiconductor materials, the pair may include an n-doped layer and a p-doped layer arranged on the substrate and on opposite. The doped layers may be arranged on the substrate and on opposite, lateral sides of the tapered active region, respectively. The device may include an electron blocking layer, which may extend both at a first interface, between a p-doped layer and the substrate, and at a second interface, between the tapered active region and the p-doped layer, along a lateral side of the tapered active region.

Electro-optical device with lateral electron blocking layer

An electro-optical device having two wafer components and a device fabrication method. A first wafer component includes a silicon substrate and a cladding layer on top thereof. The cladding layer comprises a cavity formed therein, wherein the cavity is filled with an electrically insulating thermal spreader, which has a thermal conductivity larger than that of the cladding layer. The second wafer component comprises a stack of III-V semiconductor gain materials, designed for optical amplification of a given radiation. The second wafer component is bonded to the first wafer component, such that the stack of III-V semiconductor gain materials is in thermal communication with the thermal spreader. In addition, the thermal spreader has a refractive index that is lower than each of the refractive index of the silicon substrate and an average refractive index of the stack of III-V semiconductor gain materials for said given radiation.

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Adliswil, Switzerland

Charles Caër