Monolithically integrated waveguide-coupled silica microtoroids

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel monolithically integrated silica microtoroid resonator design that is coupled to silicon nanowire waveguides, enabling seamless integration within silicon photonics platforms.

Contribution

It presents a new inverted microtoroid geometry fabricated on a suspended SiO2 membrane for on-chip integration with silicon photonics.

Findings

Successful fabrication of high-Q silica microtoroids

Effective monolithic coupling to silicon nanowire waveguides

Compatibility with silicon photonics technology platform

Abstract

We report on the design and fabrication of a new type of microtoroid high-Q silica resonators monolithically coupled to on-chip silicon nanowire waveguides. In order to enable monolithic waveguide coupling, the microtoroid geometry is inverted such that the resonator is formed by thermal reflow at the circumference of a hole etched in a suspended SiO2 membrane. This configuration is shown to be conducive to integration with a fully functional Silicon Photonics technology platform.