Silicon Nanoridge Array Waveguides for Nonlinear and Sensing Applications

TL;DR

This paper presents the fabrication and characterization of silicon nanoridge array waveguides that enhance nonlinear effects and sensing capabilities, showing promising results for integrated photonic applications.

Contribution

It introduces a novel silicon nanoridge array waveguide design with improved nonlinear and sensing performance compared to existing structures.

Findings

Comparable propagation loss to existing waveguides

Enhanced effective third-order nonlinear susceptibility

High environmental sensitivity

Abstract

We fabricate and characterize waveguides composed of closely spaced and longitudinally oriented silicon ridges etched into silicon-on-insulator wafers. Through both guided mode and bulk measurements, we demonstrate that the patterning of silicon waveguides on such a deeply subwavelength scale is desirable for nonlinear and sensing applications alike. The proposed waveguide geometry simultaneously exhibits comparable propagation loss to similar schemes proposed in literature, an enhanced effective third-order nonlinear susceptibility, and high sensitivity to perturbations in its environment.