Silicon Nanophotonic Waveguides for the Mid-Infrared

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first practical silicon nanophotonic waveguides operating at mid-infrared wavelengths, enabling new applications in integrated photonics and biosensing.

Contribution

It presents the experimental realization of mid-infrared silicon nanophotonic waveguides, extending their operational wavelength range beyond near-infrared.

Findings

Successful operation at 4.5 microns wavelength

First practical mid-infrared silicon waveguide system

Potential for new mid-infrared applications

Abstract

It has recently been shown that silicon nanophotonic waveguides can be used to construct all of the components of a photonic data transmission system on a single chip. These components can be integrated together with CMOS electronics to create complex electronic-photonic integrated circuits. It has also emerged that the high field confinement of silicon nanoscale guides enables exciting new applications, from chipscale nonlinear optics to biosensors and light-force activated devices. To date, most of the experiments in silicon waveguides have been at wavelengths in the near-infrared, ranging from 1.1-2 microns. Here we show that single-mode silicon nano-waveguides can be used at mid-infrared wavelengths, in particular at 4.5 microns, or 2222.2 1/cm. This idea has appeared in theoretical literature, but experimental realization has been elusive. This result represents the first practical integrated waveguide system for the mid-infrared in silicon, and enables a range of new applications.