PORT: A piezoelectric optical resonance tuner

TL;DR

This paper introduces a piezoelectric aluminum nitride actuator integrated with silicon nitride photonic resonators, enabling precise optical wavelength tuning with high quality factor preservation and fast response times.

Contribution

It demonstrates a novel AlN piezoelectric actuator design for tuning silicon nitride photonic resonators with minimal quality factor degradation and rapid tuning capabilities.

Findings

Achieves 20pm wavelength tuning with 60V voltage

Maintains Q factor of 64,000 during tuning

Tuning speed is less than 1 microsecond

Abstract

This abstract presents an aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric actuator for tuning optical resonance modes of silicon nitride photonic resonators. The AlN actuator is fabricated on top of a thick silicon dioxide cladding that encapsulates the nitride resonator and waveguide. The PORT is defined by undercutting the cladding layer with a lateral silicon etch. It tunes the optical wavelength by 20pm on applying 60 V to the top electrode with a 0.5nA current draw. The thick oxide cladding preserves the resonator's loaded quality factor Q optical of 64,000 across the entire tuning range. The first bending mode is at 1.1MHz enabling a tuning speed of <1 {\mu}s.