Design and Fabrication of High-Quality Two-Dimensional Silicon-Based Photonic Crystal Optical Cavity with Integrated Waveguides
Sohail Muhammad, Dingwei Chen, Chengwei Xian, Jun Zhou, Zhongke Lei, Pengju Kuang, Zhe Li, Guangjun Wen, Yongjun Huang
Abstract
The emergences of silicon-based photonic crystal (PhC) waveguides and two-dimensional (2D) PhC line-defect optical cavities have revolutionized the field of integrated photonics. In this paper, we design and fabricate a high-quality (high-Q) 2D silicon-based PhC optical cavity with integrated waveguides. We employ the 2D finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method to simulate the cavity, considering two different thicknesses: 0.5 μm and 0.25 μm. By optimizing the line-defect and air-slot widths for the integrated PhC waveguides, we are able to achieve remarkable Q-factors for the PhC optical cavity. With a silicon thickness of 0.5 μm, the high-Q achieves an impressively high value of 8.01 × 106, while at a silicon thickness of 0.25 μm, it achieves 1.91 × 107. This research highlights the importance of design optimization and fabrication techniques in achieving high-Q optical devices using PhC and silicon-based structures.