Imprinted silicon-based nanophotonics.

We demonstrate and optically characterize silicon-on-insulator based nanophotonic devices fabricated by nanoimprint lithography. In our demonstration, we have realized ordinary and topology-optimized photonic crystal waveguide structures. The topology-optimized structures require lateral pattern definition on a sub 30-nm scale in combination with a deep vertical silicon etch of the order of ~300 nm.

Photonic crystal waveguides with semi-slow light and tailored dispersion properties.

We demonstrate a concept for tailoring the group velocity and dispersion properties for light propagating in a planar photonic crystal waveguide. By perturbing the holes adjacent to the waveguide core it is possible to increase the useful bandwidth below the light-line and obtain a photonic crystal waveguide with either vanishing, positive, or negative group velocity dispersion and semi-slow light. We realize experimentally a silicon-on-insulator photonic crystal waveguide having nearly constant group velocity ~c(0)/34 in an 11-nm bandwidth below the silica-line.

Strained silicon as a new electro-optic material.

For decades, silicon has been the material of choice for mass fabrication of electronics. This is in contrast to photonics, where passive optical components in silicon have only recently been realized. The slow progress within silicon optoelectronics, where electronic and optical functionalities can be integrated into monolithic components based on the versatile silicon platform, is due to the limited active optical properties of silicon.

Planar glass devices for efficient periodic poling.

We demonstrate that frequency-converting devices of high quality can be realised with glass poling. The devices, made with silica-on-silicon technology, are poled with periodic, embedded electrodes, and used for second-harmonic generation. We obtain precise control of the quasi phase-matching wavelength and bandwidth, and a normalised conversion efficiency of 1.

Direct experimental and numerical determination of extremely high group indices in photonic crystal waveguides.

We report on time-of-flight experimental measurements and numerical calculations of the group-index dispersion in a photonic crystal waveguide realized in silicon-on-insulator material. Experimentally group indices higher than 230 has been observed. Numerical 2D and 3D time-domain simulations show excellent agreement with the measured data.