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Crystalline silicon optical fibers with low optical loss

Crystalline silicon optical fibers with low optical loss
Crystalline silicon optical fibers with low optical loss
Polycrystalline silicon core optical fibers have been fabricated by modified thermal annealing of amorphous silicon chemically deposited at high pressure. The resulting fibers have small-diameter cores, a geometry advantageous for optical guidance. Moreover, the combination of chemical deposition and annealing avoids difficulties associated with undesired transfer of oxygen impurities to the silicon core from the molten cladding during the drawing process. The high aspect ratio of the amorphous silicon core and the presence of the silica cladding surrounding make the design rules for annealing to optimize their polycrystalline structure different from those of conventional amorphous silicon films. We find that optimization of the annealing allows for an increase in the polycrystalline grain size and decrease in the defects in the silicon core. A low optical loss of less than 1 dB/cm at a wavelength of 2.2 µm is thus realized, much lower than that reported for small core size (<10 µm) crystalline silicon fibers and comparable to the loss in many planar semiconductor waveguides. This loss is just below the threshold of 1 dB/cm often considered necessary for many photonic and optoelectronic applications at near to mid-infrared wavelengths in areas such as nonlinear photonics, lasers, and in-fiber photodetectors. Further reduction in optical losses as deposition and annealing techniques are improved can be anticipated.
optical fiber, silicon photonics, thermal annealing, crystal growth, confined geometry deposition, chemical vapor deposition, high pressure
1-7
Chaudhuri, Subhasis
d8f81ab4-87bf-4aa5-a7f5-17843df0bbde
Sparks, Justin
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Ji, Xiaoyu
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Krishnamurthi, Mahesh
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Shen, Li
f45b1185-ca40-4af3-8b79-d444dc11dc8f
Healy, Noel
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Peacock, Anna
685d924c-ef6b-401b-a0bd-acf1f8e758fc
Gopalan, Venkatraman
c37ec093-614a-4b1c-a6ec-a5b32f398a58
Badding, John
d1e2327a-54b9-44cd-9de7-812fb7bddd7a
Chaudhuri, Subhasis
d8f81ab4-87bf-4aa5-a7f5-17843df0bbde
Sparks, Justin
940d8901-dcd0-40be-9bcf-301e0cd8db08
Ji, Xiaoyu
a6b6c1ec-ceea-4033-9f51-e5da6402356a
Krishnamurthi, Mahesh
f707c230-29e8-436d-a160-a54f41ae5305
Shen, Li
f45b1185-ca40-4af3-8b79-d444dc11dc8f
Healy, Noel
26eec85c-8d12-4f21-a67a-022f8dc2daab
Peacock, Anna
685d924c-ef6b-401b-a0bd-acf1f8e758fc
Gopalan, Venkatraman
c37ec093-614a-4b1c-a6ec-a5b32f398a58
Badding, John
d1e2327a-54b9-44cd-9de7-812fb7bddd7a

Chaudhuri, Subhasis, Sparks, Justin, Ji, Xiaoyu, Krishnamurthi, Mahesh, Shen, Li, Healy, Noel, Peacock, Anna, Gopalan, Venkatraman and Badding, John (2016) Crystalline silicon optical fibers with low optical loss. ACS Photonics, 1-7. (doi:10.1021/acsphotonics.5b00434).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Polycrystalline silicon core optical fibers have been fabricated by modified thermal annealing of amorphous silicon chemically deposited at high pressure. The resulting fibers have small-diameter cores, a geometry advantageous for optical guidance. Moreover, the combination of chemical deposition and annealing avoids difficulties associated with undesired transfer of oxygen impurities to the silicon core from the molten cladding during the drawing process. The high aspect ratio of the amorphous silicon core and the presence of the silica cladding surrounding make the design rules for annealing to optimize their polycrystalline structure different from those of conventional amorphous silicon films. We find that optimization of the annealing allows for an increase in the polycrystalline grain size and decrease in the defects in the silicon core. A low optical loss of less than 1 dB/cm at a wavelength of 2.2 µm is thus realized, much lower than that reported for small core size (<10 µm) crystalline silicon fibers and comparable to the loss in many planar semiconductor waveguides. This loss is just below the threshold of 1 dB/cm often considered necessary for many photonic and optoelectronic applications at near to mid-infrared wavelengths in areas such as nonlinear photonics, lasers, and in-fiber photodetectors. Further reduction in optical losses as deposition and annealing techniques are improved can be anticipated.

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Accepted/In Press date: 12 January 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 12 January 2016
Published date: 16 March 2016
Keywords: optical fiber, silicon photonics, thermal annealing, crystal growth, confined geometry deposition, chemical vapor deposition, high pressure
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 388168
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/388168
PURE UUID: 7cdeccfe-9f0a-464a-9230-31ea2a08cdeb
ORCID for Anna Peacock: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1940-7172

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 19 Feb 2016 14:37
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:15

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Contributors

Author: Subhasis Chaudhuri
Author: Justin Sparks
Author: Xiaoyu Ji
Author: Mahesh Krishnamurthi
Author: Li Shen
Author: Noel Healy
Author: Anna Peacock ORCID iD
Author: Venkatraman Gopalan
Author: John Badding

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