Demonstration of the DC-Kerr Effect in Silicon-Rich Nitride

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the DC-Kerr effect in silicon-rich nitride, revealing a high third-order nonlinear susceptibility suitable for optical phase-shifters in CMOS-compatible fabrication.

Contribution

It reports the first measurement of the DC-Kerr effect in PECVD silicon-rich nitride and quantifies its nonlinear susceptibility, showing potential for integrated photonics.

Findings

Third-order nonlinear susceptibility of (6 +/- 0.58)x10^-19 m^2/v^2

Demonstration of spectral shift versus voltage in a racetrack resonator

Potential for CMOS-compatible optical phase-shifters

Abstract

We demonstrate the DC-Kerr effect in PECVD Silicon-rich Nitride (SRN) and use it to demonstrate a third order nonlinear susceptibility, \c{hi}^((3)), as high as (6 +/- 0.58)x10-19 m2/v2. We employ spectral shift versus applied voltage measurements in a racetrack ring resonator as a tool by which to characterize the nonlinear susceptibilities of these films. In doing so we demonstrate a \c{hi}^((3)) larger than that of silicon and argue that PECVD SRN can provide a versatile platform for employing optical phase-shifters while maintain a low thermal budget using a deposition technique readily available in CMOS process flows.