High-frequency self-induced oscillations in a silicon nanocavity.

We show that self-induced oscillations at frequencies above GHz and with a high spectral purity can be obtained in a silicon photonic crystal nanocavity under optical pumping. This self-pulsing results from the interplay between the nonlinear response of the cavity and the photon cavity lifetime. We provide a model to analyze the mechanisms governing the onset of self-pulsing, the amplitudes of both fundamental and harmonic oscillations and their dependences versus input power and oscillation frequency. Theoretically, oscillations at frequencies higher than 50 GHz could be achieved in this system.

Schottky MSM junctions for carrier depletion in silicon photonic crystal microcavities.

Collection of free carriers is a key issue in silicon photonics devices. We show that a lateral metal-semiconductor-metal Schottky junction is an efficient and simple way of dealing with that issue in a photonic crystal microcavity. Using a simple electrode design, and taking into account the optical mode profile, the resulting carrier distribution in the structure is calculated. We show that the corresponding effective free carrier lifetime can be reduced by 50 times when the bias is tuned. This allows one to maintain a high cavity quality factor under strong optical injection. In the fabricated structures, carrier depletion is correlated with transmission spectra and directly visualized by Electron Beam Induced Current pictures. These measurements demonstrate the validity of this carrier extraction principle. The design can still be optimized in order to obtain full carrier depletion at a smaller energy cost.

High quality factor in a two-dimensional photonic crystal cavity on silicon-on-insulator.

We propose a design for high quality factor two-dimensional (2D) photonic crystal cavities on silicon-on-insulator (SOI). A quality factor of up to 1.2×10(7) with a modal volume of 2.35(λ/n)(3) is simulated. A very high quality factor of 200,000 is experimentally demonstrated for a 2D cavity fabricated on SOI.

All-silicon photonic crystal photoconductor on silicon-on-insulator at telecom wavelength.

We demonstrate an all-silicon photodetector working at telecom wavelength. The device is a simple metal-semiconductor-metal detector fabricated on silicon-on-insulator. A two-dimensional photonic crystal nanocavity (Q=60,000) is used to increase the response that arises from the linear and two-photon absorption of silicon. The responsivity of the detector is about 20 mA/W and its bandwidth is larger than 1 GHz.

Extremely low power optical bistability in silicon demonstrated using 1D photonic crystal nanocavity.

We demonstrate optical bistability in silicon using a high-Q (Q > 105) one-dimensional photonic crystal nanocavity at an extremely low 1.6 microW input power that is one tenth the previously reported value. Owing to the device's unique geometrical structure, light and heat efficiently confine in a very small region, enabling strong thermo-optic confinement. We also showed with numerical analyses that this device can operate at a speed of approximately 0.5 micros.