Microcavity Development for the Control of Erbium-Doped Silicon Luminescence.

This program, Microcavity Development for the Control of Erbium-Doped Silicon Luminescence, has discovered that the SiSiO2 materials system has outstanding promise as a medium for the generation and confinement of light. Materials and processing methods for the fabrication of microcavity devices compatible with erbium-doped silicon SiEr were developed. We have demonstrated two types of silicon based microcavities for the control of spontaneous emission from SiEr which involves Light guiding in highly confining, submicron dimensioned silicon waveguides. The microdisk and PBG cavities, when coupled to waveguides, can act as filters, signal routers, and compact gain sections for integrated laser devices. The use of a high index difference system such as SiSiO2 allows the reduction of the dimensions of waveguides and associated optical components to the submicron range. This reduction in size provides for integration of higher densities and greater functionality on a single die. This program has provided the foundation for a complete, submicron scaled silicon integrated optics technology.