Fabrication of photonic resonators in bulk 4H-SiC

TL;DR

This paper presents a novel fabrication method for creating high-quality photonic resonators in bulk 4H-Silicon Carbide, advancing integrated quantum photonics applications.

Contribution

It introduces a Faraday cage based oblique angle etch technique for fabricating functional photonic devices in 4H-SiC with detailed process and optical characterization.

Findings

Achieved high quality factors up to 3500 in visible range

Demonstrated effective fabrication of suspended microring resonators

Enhanced potential for quantum photonics applications in SiC

Abstract

The design and engineering of photonic architectures, suitable to enhance, collect and guide light on chip is needed for applications in quantum photonics and quantum optomechanics. In this work we apply a Faraday cage based oblique angle etch method to fabricate various functional photonic devices from 4H Silicon Carbide - a material that has attracted attention in recent years, due to its potential in optomechanics, nonlinear optics and quantum information. We detail the processing conditions and thoroughly address the geometrical and optical characteristics of the fabricated devices. Employing photoluminescence measurements we demonstrate high quality factors for suspended microring resonators of up to 3500 in the visible range. Such devices will be applicable in the future to augment the properties of SiC in integrated on chip quantum photonics.