Silicon Nanophotonic Devices Based On Resonance Enhancement

Silicon nanophotonic devices
based on resonance
enhancement
Zhiping Zhou
Huaming Wu
Junbo Feng
Jin Hou
Huaxiang Yi
Xingjun Wang
Downloaded From: http://nanophotonics.spiedigitallibrary.org/ on 05/20/2015 Terms of Use: http://spiedl.org/terms

Journal of Nanophotonics, Vol. 4, 041001 (24 November 2010)
COMMEMORATIVE PAPER
Silicon nanophotonic devices based on resonance

enhancement*
Zhiping Zhou,a, Huaming Wu,a, b Junbo Feng,c Jin Hou,a, b Huaxiang Yi,a and
Xingjun Wanga
a
Peking University, State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems
and Networks, Beijing 100871, China
b
Huazhong University of Science & Technology, Wuhan National Laboratory for
Optoelectronics, School of Optoelectronics Science and Engineering,
Wuhan 430074, China
c
Tsinghua University, Department of Physics, Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology
Research Center, Beijing 100084, China
zjzhou@pku.edu.cn
Abstract. In recent years, silicon nanophotonic devices have attracted more and more
attention due to their compactness, low power consumption, and easy integration with
other functions. In addition to the higher index of silicon material providing stronger light
confinement, the optical resonance associated with the novel structure design also
enhances the performance of nanophotonic devices and offers stronger light-matter
interaction. Silicon nanophotonic devices such as polarization beamsplitters, mirrors and
reflectors, slow light waveguides, and microring sensors are studied, and all of them
demonstrate much better performances due to the incorporated optical resonance
enhancement.
Subject terms: optical resonance; silicon nanophotonics; multisubpart profile grating;
reflector; coupler; photonic crystals; slow light; microring resonator sensor.
1 INTRODUCTION
Recently, the area of integrated optics has been undergoing rapid development and
gaining a large number of applications in fiber communications, optical interconnections,
and sensing [1]. In turn, these applications have brought many challenges to optical
circuits such as increased circuit density and further miniaturized devices. Therefore,
compact and high performance optical components are in great demand. Owing to the
advantages of high refractive index contrast between the silicon core and oxide cladding,
and the compatibility with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS)
fabrication technology [2, 3], silicon nanophotonic devices are now being regarded as
promising candidates for low cost, high density integration. With the merits of high index
contrast and allowing sharp bends, silicon nanophotonic building blocks such as couplers,
splitters, photonic crystal waveguides, and ring resonators can be made more compact [4].
Also, the possibility of leveraging the industrial fabrication infrastructure base of
electronics makes them more suitable for integrated optics.
One of the major advantages of optics is the ability to employ resonance to enhance
device performance. The combination of resonance and compactness has well-positioned
silicon nanophotonic devices as great choices for implementing modern optical functional
devices. Using a two-ring Mach–Zehnder interferometer on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI)
*
Editorial Note: This paper was invited to commemorate the promotion of Zhiping Zhou
to SPIE Fellow.
© 2010 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers [DOI: 10.1117/1.3527260]

Received 30 Jun 2010; accepted 17 Nov 2010; published 24 Nov 2010 [CCC: 19342608/2010/$25.00]
Journal of Nanophotonics, Vol. 4, 041001 (2010) Page 1

platform, Darmawam et al. [5] proposed and demonstrated a device that exhibits a sharp
resonance with background suppression to give both high finesse and modulation depth.
Zhou et al. [1] showed that an ultrasmall nanotaper for mode conversion between fiber
and submicron waveguides can be obtained by using a SOI nanopillar waveguide.
Momeni et al. [2] reported integrated sensing realized by silicon nanophotonic devices. In
this work, we present our research in the nanophotonics domain using silicon
nanophotonic structures based on resonance enhancement. Three types of structures—
gratings with multisubpart profiles, photonic crystals, and microrings—have been studied
in detail. Their unique properties and potential applications are also discussed.
2 MULTISUBPART PROFILE GRATING-RELATED DEVICES
Due to their simple structure and natural partnership with interference, grating-related
devices are key components for numerous optical devices such as splitters, reflectors, and
couplers in integrated optics. In this section, we give an overview of our work on
manipulating optical reflection and transmission in the nanophotonics domain using
multisubpart profile grating (MPG) structures. First, a broadband compact polarization
beamsplitter (PBS) constructed by only a single layer subwavelength MPG is proposed.
Secondly, a multilayer-based high performance subwavelength MPG reflector is
presented. Then, we demonstrate a MPG as a highly efficient vertical coupler between a
single mode fiber and silicon waveguide. Finally, we design a MPG PBS to split and
couple the input light into two waveguides separately.
2.1 Polarization beamsplitter

Polarization beamsplitters (PBSs) are basic functional elements for photonic integrated
circuits [6] and are the separation of two orthogonally polarized light beams, which play
important roles in numerous optical information processing applications. Conventional
PBSs employing the effects of natural birefringence of crystals, such as Wollaston,, Nicol,
and Glan-Thomson prisms, require large thicknesses for generating the two orthogonal
polarizations, and are not suitable for integrated optical circuits. Another method is based
on the polarization selectivity of multilayer dielectric structures [7]. However, it provides
good extinction ratios only in a narrow angular bandwidth for a limited wavelength range
[8]. Recently, with the development of nanofabrication technologies, much attention has
been diverted to subwavelength gratings (SWGs). SWGs exhibit strong polarization
properties, which can be used as polarization beamsplitters [9, 10]. In this section, a
subwavelength grating with a multisubpart profile is proposed as a PBS, which can offer
the combined merits of high diffraction efficiencies with good extinction ratios over a
broad spectrum and comparatively wide angular bandwidth [11, 12].
TE&TM TE
T I
R
0 x1 x2 x3 x
tg Grating layer Si
Tr
TM Si O2
z
Fig. 1. Schematic of a MPG PBS. T, tg, and x1 to x3 denote the grating period,
thickness, and transition points, respectively. The incidence medium is air, and
the substrate is silica. The parameters are: nair = 1.0, nSi = 3.48, nsilica = 1.47,
x1/x2/x3 =0.13/0.44/0.77µm, T=1.04μm, and tg=0.9μm.

A schematic of the proposed MPG PBS is shown in Fig.1. The device is normally
illuminated by a monochromatic plane wave with both TE (electric field parallel to the
grating grooves) and TM (magnetic field vector parallel to the grating grooves) polarized
components. The TE and TM polarized waves are then highly efficiently separated into
the zero reflected and transmitted orders by the structure. In this work, for simplicity, it is
assumed that the reflector is transversely infinite, and that the dielectric materials are
lossless and dispersion free. Rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) [13] associated
with the particle swarm optimization (PSO) method [14] is adopted to design and
optimize the structure. RCWA is a well known rigorous method for solving diffraction
problems involving optical periodic structures. And PSO strategy is a global, readily
implemented optimization technique that can handle different optimization problems. As
for the device, the parameters to be optimized are grating transition points (x1, x2, x3),
thickness (tg), and period (T). The angle of incidence (θ is measured with respect to the
grating normal) and refractive index of each constituent material are set to proper values
for the design.
Several figures of merit are of interest to quantify the performance of the grating PBS
[15]. These are the diffraction efficiencies, wavelength bandwidth, polarization extinction
ratio, and angle of incidence. For the structure in Fig.1, the zero order reflectivity of the
TE wave R0TE and the zero order transmissivity of the TM wave T0TM should be high. And
the extinction ratio (ER) is defined by [16]
ER = min( ER0TE , ER0TM ) , (1)
in which
R0TM , T TE . (2)
ER0TE = −10 log TE
ER0TM = −10 log 0TM
R0 T0
ER0TE and ER0TM are the extinction ratios of the zero order of TE and TM waves in units of
decibels, respectively.
Fig. 2. Spectra of a broadband PBS structure shown in Fig.1. (a) Reflectivity

spectra response of the PBS. (b) Transmissivity of the PBS at log scale. The
resonance wavelength is 1.51μm.
Figure 2(a) presents spectral properties of the proposed device. It has a flat TE
stopband from 1.53 to 1.62 μm with reflectance R0>99%, and the TM pass band is nearly
flat in the wavelength range of interest with transmittance T0>97%. To clearly illustrate
the high reflectance and large bandwidth of the device, we plot the transmissivity on
logarithmic scales. As can be seen in Fig. 2(b), there is a transmittance dip at 1.51 μm for
TE polarization, which corresponds to a leaky-mode resonance (LMR) [17]. This shows
that the broad reflection band results from the TE leaky mode resonance. Theoretical
analysis shows a maximum (100%) in the zero order reflectance spectra at resonance in

the dielectric gratings, and an efficient energy exchange between the reflected and
transmitted waves [18]. Physically, LMR arises when the externally propagating
diffracted fields couple to the leaky waveguide modes by phase matching [19].
Furthermore, the high reflectance and large bandwidths are associated with the
characteristics of the large refractive index difference between the materials and the
properly configured top grating profile [20, 21]. The high-index-contrast grating layer can
expand the resonances and eventually lead to the formation of broadband reflectance
spectra. Moreover, the multisubpart profile of the top grating layer can work to remove
the leaky-mode degeneracy of the grating PBS [22], which opens the possibility of a flat
reflection band for TE polarization.
Extinction ratio (ER) as a function of wavelength is demonstrated in Fig. 3. The zero
order extinction ratios ER0TE and ER0TM can be larger than 16 and 19 dB over 1.53 to1.62
μm, respectively. Numerical results show that in the wavelength range of interest, ER0TM
is larger than ER0TE , resulting from the low transmittance of TE wave [see Fig. 2(b)], and
at resonance, ER0TM is as high as 37 dB. It shows that the proposed grating PBS can work
well over the band range 1.53 to1.62 μm, and that the TM wave works better than the TE
wave.
We also investigated the angular spectrum of the grating PBS, as shown in Fig.4. TE
and TM polarized waves can achieve high diffraction efficiencies (>95%) in the range of
-4 to 4 deg. The angular bandwidth of the zero diffracted order is comparatively wide,
which makes the alignment problems encountered in implementing compact micro-optic
systems quite moderate [8, 12].
Fig. 3. Extinction ratio (ER) of the grating

PBS as a function of incident wavelength.
Fig. 4. Angular spectrum of the grating PBS

at the wavelength of 1.57 μm.

2.2 Broadband polarization insensitive reflector
The efficient reflection of light across wide spectra is essential for numerous optical
devices such as absorbers, couplers, lasers, and ultrashort pulse amplification systems.
Classic reflectors are realized by both metallic and dielectric reflectors. Metal reflectors
have wide bandwidths, but reflectivity is limited by absorption loss, and dielectric ones
typically consist of stacks of homogeneous layers with different dielectric indices, which
usually make it difficult to achieve a broad bandwidth performance by deposition
methods [21]. More recently, an alternative approach, based on the phenomenon of LMR
in dielectric gratings [23], has attracted considerable interest. Using a subwavelength
grating with a low-index cladding layer on a silicon substrate, Mateus et al. [20, 21] and
Lu et al. [24] designed fabricated flat-top reflectors that demonstrated very high
reflectivity and very broad reflection spectra. To emphasize the unique characteristics
introduced by multisubpart profiles, Ding and Magnusson [22] theoretically presented
that versatile optical functionalities such as broadband reflection can be implemented by
using a grating profile with a four-subpart period.
Unfortunately, due to their inherent polarization sensitivity, the performance of all of
these reflectors is largely dependent on light polarization, which limits their applications
in light demultiplexing [25], unpolarized lasers, and so on. Previously, by using a single
layer subwavelength grating, Ding and Magnusson [9] reported a polarization insensitive
bandstop filter with a 20-nm bandwidth. In this section, a broadband polarization
insensitive reflector based on a multilayered grating structure with a multisubpart profile
is proposed and demonstrated. It is shown that the proposed reflector can offer the
combined merits of high reflectivity over a broadband spectrum and good angular
bandwidth for both TE and TM polarized waves [26].
TE&TM TE&TM
T I
R
x1 x2 x3 x4 x5
tg
0
Grating layer
x
tm Silicon
tb SiO2
Tr TE&TM
Silicon substrate
z
Fig. 5. A schematic view of a multilayer-based reflector under normal incidence.
A multilayer grating structure with grating period T, thickness tg, transition
points x1 to x5, thickness of middle layer tm, and buffer layer tb is treated. I, R,
and Tr denote the incident wave, reflectance, and transmittance, respectively.
The incidence medium is air, and the substrate is silicon.
The proposed structure has a multilayer configuration with a six subpart surface-relief
grating etched onto the top silicon layer, as shown in Fig.5. Rigorous coupled-wave
analysis (RCWA) for multilayered grating structures [27, 28] is adopted to design and
optimize the structure. As for the device, the parameters to be optimized are grating
transition points (x1, x2, x3, x4, x5), thickness (tg), period (T), and thickness of the middle
layer (tm). The angle of incidence (θ is measured with respect to the grating normal),
thickness of silica (tb), and refractive index of each constituent material are set to proper
values for the design. The optimized results are: x1/x2/x3/x4/x5=0.37/0.5/0.58/0.8/0.9 µm,
T=1 µm, θ=0 deg, tg=0.64 µm, tm=0.04 µm, and tb=1 µm.

Fig. 6. Reflectance and transmittance spectra of the reflector normally
illuminated by both TE and TM polarized waves. (a) Reflectance on linear
scales. Over a broadband spectrum (1.62 to 1.76 μm), the reflector can achieve
high reflectivity (R>99%). (b) Transmittance on log scales. For TE polarization,
the resonance wavelengths are 1.55 and 1.8 μm, respectively. For TM
polarization, the corresponding values are 1.63 and 1.71 μm, respectively.
Figure 6(a) shows the reflectivity spectra of the reflector for both TE and TM
polarizations. As displayed, the width of the reflection band with R>0.99 is about 140 nm
over the 1.62- to 1.76-μm range, and in the range of 1.67 to 1.75 μm, the reflectivity is
even larger than 99.5%. Just as with the MPG PBS case, we also plot the transmissivity
of the reflector on logarithmic scales. As displayed in Fig. 6(b), for TE polarization there
are two transmittance dips in the range of 1.5 to 1.9 μm, each of which corresponds to a
leaky-mode resonance [17]. This shows that the broad reflection band results from
coexistence and interaction of the TE leaky modes. For TM polarization, there are two
resonances in the range of 1.6 to 1.8 μm, and their coexistence and interaction results in
this broad reflection band. As also can be seen in Fig.6(b), inside the wavelength range of
interest (1.62 to 1.76 μm), the simultaneous coexistence and interaction of leaky modes of
both TE and TM polarized waves result in the polarization insensitive properties of the
reflector. On the other hand, the coexistence and interaction of leaky modes are
associated with the high refractive index difference between the materials and the
properly configured top grating profile. Also, the high-index middle layer and grating
function together simultaneously as the waveguide, which can increase the mode
confinements, and therefore provide a broad linewidth [29]. As shown in Fig.7(a), for
the TE case the middle layer can also greatly improve the properties of high reflectivity
[see Fig.7(b)].
Fig. 7. Reflectivity spectra of the reflector with (tm=0.04 μm) and without (tm=0) the middle
layer for (a) TE and (b) TM polarizations.

Fig. 8. Angular behavior of the reflector at a wavelength of 1.68 μm. The figure shows more
than 0.99 reflectivity at the range of -14.8 to 14.8 deg for both TE and TM polarizations.
We have also examined the angular response of the reflector at a wavelength of 1.68
μm, as shown in Fig. 8. For TE polarization, the result reveals more than 0.99 reflectivity
for an incident angle in the range of -16 to 16 deg, and for TM polarization it can be seen
in the figure that the structure can achieve high reflectivity (R>99%) in the range of -14.8
to 14.8 deg. These remarkably large angular tolerances are mainly due to the coexistence
and interaction of leaky modes [17]. Generally, LMR-based devices with a single
resonant peak usually have small angular apertures due to their inherent rapid variation
intensity with respect to the incident angle [30], while the coexistence and interaction of
leaky modes resulting from the high-index-contrast materials and modulation profile of
the grating can provide broadband reflection with high reflectivity at wide angular
bandwidth. It is not surprising to see that the structure has a wide angular aperture at a
wavelength of 1.68 μm.
2.3 Vertical grating coupler
Another application of the MPG is as a coupler for nanowaveguides. Compared with

other nanophotonic coupling strategies, grating coupling has higher coupling efficiency,
enables wafer-scale testing of the integrated circuits, holds the promise of low cost
packaging, etc. All these advantages make it the most promising method for integrated
optical circuits.
Input light with a certain wavelength can be coupled into nanowaveguides through
periodical corrugation of the grating surface when the phase matching condition is
satisfied. Multisubpart profile grating allows more flexibility on the grating design, and
extends the applications of the grating coupler. We propose the use of MPG as a vertical
coupling method between the optical fiber and a SOI waveguide, which shows high
efficiency and is easy to fabricate with conventional CMOS technology [31]. A schematic
drawing of the MPG coupler is shown in Fig. 9. Light from single mode fibers (SMFs) is
normally launched on the grating surface. The grating length is about 14 μm, which is
slightly larger than the core size of SMF. The MPG coupler is designed for a wavelength
of 1.55 μm under TE polarization.
A vertical coupling efficiency of about 70% was obtained after optimization of the
structure parameters. Figure 10 shows the simulation result obtained by OptiFDTD
software [32].

Fig. 9. Structure of MPG coupler for vertical fiber coupling.
Fig. 10. Input coupling case of the MPG

coupler by the software OptiFDTD. The
plotted field is the real part of Ey. The grating
length is about 14 μm and coupling efficiency
is 70%.
2.4 Polarization beamsplitter
In this section, based on the strong polarization dependence feature of a MPG coupler, we
demonstrate a compact PBS that acts as a PBS and a coupler [33]. The structure
comprises two-layer polarization sensitive MPG couples (see Fig. 11). The upper MPG
coupler is designed for TE mode coupling, while the lower MPG coupler is for the TM
mode. Normally incident light with both polarizations can be separately coupled into two
waveguides. A PBS using a two-dimensional grating coupler is proposed [34], but the
design of the two-dimensional grating optimized for both polarizations is complicated,
and the coupling efficiency of the two-dimensional symmetrical grating coupler cannot be
very high (about 20%) to balance two polarizations. Moreover, for different applications,
the light in the two waveguides is in the TE waveguide mode, while our structure splits
the input light into TE and TM waveguide modes.

Fig. 11. Schematic of two-layer MPG coupler as a
PBS. (a) Upper grating coupler for TE mode. (b)
Spacer between two couplers. (c) Lower grating
coupler for TM mode. (d) SiO2 spacer. (e) Si
substrate.
Fig. 12. Simulation results of (a) TE input

and (b) TM input
Fig. 13. Extinction ratio for each layer as a

function of wavelength.
The device is designed for normal incidence. In the normal incidence case, the
maximum achievable coupling efficiency of a single subpart grating is not satisfactory. To
achieve higher coupling efficiency and better extinction ratio, an MPG is used in our
structure. The binary blazed gratings are 0.3 μm deep on a 0.3-μm-thick Si waveguide.
The periods of the upper and lower grating couplers are Tg-up =0.5 μm and Tg-low =0.6 μm.
The SiO2 spacer we used is 1 μm. Figure 12 shows the simulation results obtained by

finite difference time domain (FDTD) calculation, and Fig. 13 shows the extinction ratio
as a function of incident wavelength. The coupling efficiencies are 58 and 50% for the TE
and TM modes, respectively. The extinction ratio is better than 20 dB for both
polarizations in the wavelength range of 1530 to 1570 nm. The coupling efficiency can be
further improved by using a distributed Bragg reflector (DBR) or a subwavelength
grating mirror (SGM) fabricated under the waveguide.
3 SLOW LIGHT IN PHOTONIC CRYSTALS
In photonic crystal (PC), slow light is created by the resonant interaction of the guided
mode with the periodic lattice [35]. It is this resonant interaction that adds different
functionalities to a specially designed device by only changing its structure. This is of
great interest, as it allows enhancing the weak interaction in materials like silicon to
provide stronger linear and nonlinear effects such as gain, thermo-optic and electro-optic
interaction, and third harmonic phenomenon. However, large group velocity dispersion
(GVD) and higher order dispersion are observed in the slow light regime of the PCW [36],
which would cause signal distortion [37] and limit the application of resonance
enhancement. Thus, there exists a trade-off between the frequency bandwidth and the
effective group index. By adjusting the different resonances that contribute to the slow
light modes through appropriate design, it is possible to control the obtained group index
and the corresponding bandwidth over which it occurs. Currently, there are mainly two
groups of methods to implement dispersion-free slow light in PCWs [35, 38-46]. The first
one is associated with modifications of the structure parameters approximate to the
waveguide core in a single line-defect photonic crystal waveguide (PCW) [39-43] to
achieve a linear dispersion curve. The other is to use PC-coupled waveguides to obtain a
flat band at an inflection point, and then to shift it in a chirped structure [44-46]. Next, to
make better use of the resonance in PC, we discuss the recent advances of our results in
obtaining wide bandwidth enhancement by these two methods.
3.1 Slow light in photonic crystal line defect waveguide
To decrease or eliminate the dispersion and bandwidth issue, modifications of

conventional PCWs are proposed, including varying the waveguide width [39-40]. But
these methods will destroy the symmetry of the PC [47], and it is impossible to create
efficient sharp bends in these PCWs, thereby limiting the applications. Nonuniform hole
sizes [39, 41] and PCs with ring-shaped holes [42] can maintain the symmetry of the PC,
but their slow light performances reported are not as good as expected. We therefore
proposed a novel modified line defect PC slab waveguide [43] to solve this problem.
A triangular lattice PC slab consisting of circular air holes (radii R) with lattice
constant a in a dielectric silicon background (ε=12) is assumed as the basic structure. As
shown in Fig. 14(a), the waveguide is formed by omitting one line of the holes in the
perfect PC, and additional dielectric pillars (radii r) are added in the air holes nearest to
the waveguide core. Because the 3-D calculation of the band frequency is very time
consuming, 2-D analysis with a slab equivalent index of 2.9 is adopted [48], which is
precise enough to estimate the group velocity in the slow light regime. By carefully
choosing the radii r, a linear band structure appears in the proposed PCW, and the group
index ng and normalized bandwidth ∆ω/ω of the ultralow dispersion characteristics can be
tailored. The optimum r for the high group index and low GVD characteristics also
depends on R, since the slab mode band can be shifted by changing R. Figure 14(b)
demonstrates the ng characteristics when R is varied and r is optimized accordingly,
which is obtained by the plane wave expansion (PWE) method [49]. As R is increased,
the optimum r is decreased, and the high group index with low GVD characteristic

appears at higher frequencies, exhibiting a larger ng and narrower bandwidth. If we regard
β2 = d2k/dw2 =10,000 (a/2πc2) as ultralow dispersion, then the dispersion corresponds to
about 7.42 ps2/mm for a typical application of PC with the period a around 420 nm for a
center wavelength of 1550 nm. Then, at ng=82 with ∆ω/ω=0.06% for R=0.365a, it means
a 0.93-nm bandwidth centering at 1550 nm, and ng=26 with ∆ω/ω=0.896% for R=0.315a.
One can choose a high ng and narrow bandwidth, or low ng and wide bandwidth
according to different applications. For dense wavelength division multiplexing devices, a
0.8-nm bandwidth is needed, so we don’t try a higher ng by additionally increasing the R.
Fig. 14 (a) Schematic structure of the PCW; black denotes silicon and white
denotes air. (b) Group index ng characteristics of PCW; R is varied and r is
optimized to obtain the low GVD characteristics.
Fig. 15 Time pulse shape detected at the input and output detecting points in
PCW with distance 140a. The input and output pulse intensities are normalized
according to their maximum intensities, respectively.
Pulse light propagation through the optimized waveguides is also studied by FDTD
[50] simulation. The PCW has R=0.365a, r=0.425R, and a total length L=141a, which are
chosen according to the previous PWE result and also considering the ease of fabrication.
A Gaussian pulse source is centered at 0.2703(2πc/a) with a frequency width
∆ω=0.0004(2πc/a). In this case, the corresponding bandwidth is about 2.3 nm. The
minimum fabrication line width of the waveguide is also calculated to be about 88 nm
accordingly. Due to the limitation of our computation resources, the bandwidth of the
source is wider than the previous PWE analysis. Figure 15 shows the normalized pulse
shapes corresponding to the time step propagation through the input and output detecting
points in the PC line defect waveguide. The input detecting point is positioned at 0.5a
behind the input port, and the output detecting point is positioned at 0.5a before the
output port. So the distance Ld between them is 140a. At the input detecting point, the
pulse maximum altitude for the Hz field is at 12523a/c, while it is at 22940a/c at the
output detecting point. The total delay td between the two peaks is approximately

10417a/c. The average ng can be obtained from td /Ld=74.4, which is very close to the
previous PWE calculation. The slight difference between the two values mainly results
from the different bandwidths chosen in the two methods. The half-maximum-full-width
of the incident optical pulse is 5875a/c at the input detector; while that of the output pulse
is 5630a/c. The relative pulse shape distortion is only 4.17%, so we can draw the
conclusion that the signal can be transmitted without obvious distortion, owing to the
ultralow dispersion and also the limited simulation length of the waveguide.
3.2 Slow light in chirped slot photonic crystal coupled waveguide
In PCWs, however, light is typically strongly confined in the high-index guiding core,
which is a drawback when an interaction with material outside the core is desired, such as
for applications in silicon-based high-speed signal processing [51]. Slot waveguides [52]
are novel photonic nanostructures that allow for the confinement and guiding of light in a
low-index slot surrounded by higher index materials. Obviously, it is very attractive to
merge the benefits of both slow-light propagation in PCWs and the dielectric
discontinuity of slot waveguides. Recently, slot-based PCWs have been theoretically
proposed and experimentally demonstrated by several groups [53-55]. Although great
advances have been achieved, little attention [55] has been paid to the key issue of
dispersion-free slow light in slot PCWs. Actually, owing to large group-velocity
dispersion and higher order dispersion in the slow-light regime of the waveguide, a trade-
off between the bandwidth and the effective group index of slow light has to be made.
Thus, to obtain practical devices and make good use of the resonance enhancement,
wideband dispersion-free slow light is an important consideration in slot PCWs.
Using the second scheme of the wideband slow light principle, we presented a chirped
slot PC coupled waveguide (SPCWG) to implement wideband dispersion-free slow light
[46]. Because the dispersion-free slow-light mechanism in the proposed structure is
dispersion compensation [44-46], the pulse in the device is first dispersed and then
recovered. Thus, the pulse is not spatially compressed during the propagation, and so
there is no peak-intensity enhancement in the device due to the slow light. The average
group index in the proposed structure is increased, however, so the slow light will
increase the interaction time between the light and material. Therefore, as in the principle
discussed in Ref. 35, the slow light in this device will still have a linear enhancement of
phase velocity or effective index. Moreover, slot waveguides are added in our chirped
structures, providing the advantage of field confinement in the low dielectric zone. This,
combined with the slow-light propagation, provides opportunities for the use of active
materials to overcome the disadvantage of slow light in coupled waveguides [44, 45].
Thus, the structure can provide a new opportunity for high-speed all-optical tunable delay.
A triangular lattice PC slab consisting of circular air holes (radii R) with lattice
constant a in a dielectric (silicon, ε=12) background is assumed as the basic structure.
Because the full three-dimensional calculation of the band frequency is very time
consuming, a two-dimensional analysis with a slab equivalent index of 2.9 is adopted. As
shown in Fig. 16(a), the center line of the circular holes in a perfect PC are modified to
elliptical holes with major axis Rlong and minor axis Rshort, and the two lines of circular
holes next to the elliptical holes are deleted and substituted by two slots of width Wslot that
are filled with low-index material (silicon nanocrystals in silica, typical refractive index
1.65 [56]. To obtain the ideal flat-band shape with inflection-point slow-light modes as
the center band shown in Fig. 16(b), the size of circular holes (radii Routside) just outside
the slots are also modified with respect to R. The ideal photonic band consists of a center
flat band line sandwiched between negative and positive dispersion on the higher and
lower frequency sides, respectively. To obtain perfectly dispersion-free slow light, the
opposite dispersion should be perfectly symmetric with the flat band. When suitable
structure parameters are chosen, such an ideal band can be shifted up or down, while the

ideal shape is maintained. If such modifications are continually made (i.e., chirp) along
the axis of a structure, a light pulse is first affected by the dispersion, but on propagation
is subsequently recovered due to dispersion of the opposite sign, and different frequencies
are delayed at different positions along the structure [44-46]. Accordingly, the bandwidth
and average group index are controlled by the range and slope of the chirp. Thus, through
chirping the optimized structure, wideband dispersion-free slow light can be obtained. An
optimized band structure is shown in Fig. 16(b). In the figure, FDTD with a high
resolution of 64 grids per period is adopted to calculate the band structure. While an ideal
band shape is obtained, a larger bandwidth-to-midband ratio ⊿ω/ω=1.95332 % results,
which will result in a bandwidth of about 30 nm centered at 1550 nm.
Fig. 16 (a) Schematic diagram of the SPCWG; black denotes silicon, white
denotes air, and gray denotes silicon nanocrystal in silica. The major and minor
axes (Rlong and Rshort) of the elliptical air holes, the radii (Routside) of two lines of
holes in the vicinity of the slots, the width (Wslot) of the slot, and the distance
(dy) between the center of the elliptical holes and the center of the holes nearby
the slots are set to be optimized. (b) Band structure of the optimized SPCWG
calculated by FDTD [50]; only the even mode in the electric-field component
Ey (quasi-even in the z direction and odd in the y direction) is considered. The
band in the center of the figure is of a chair shape with an inflection point with
approximate zero group velocity. The parameters are R=0.3a, Rshort=0.45a,
Rlong=0.76a, Wslot=0.4a, Routside=0.2a, and dy=0.85×1.732a. The triangle-shaped
dots with gray denote modes of the structure. The rectangular shadow zone
indicates that the normalized frequency range can be used to chirp.
We also investigate pulse propagation through the chirped structure by FDTD [50]. To
distinguish the chirped structure, a high resolution of 64 grids per period is adopted.
Increasing the chirp range requires a longer device length, which can lead to
computations that are too numerically expensive. We therefore only chirp dy from
0.835×1.732a to 0.865×1.732a, which will obtain slow light with a bandwidth of
0.0038(2πc/a). As shown in Fig. 17, the chirped SPCWG has R=0.3a, Rshort=0.45a,
Rlong=0.76a, Wslot=0.4a, Routside=0.2a, and dy is chirped from 0.835×1.732a to
0.865×1.732a in a length of 150a. Two strip waveguides with widths of 3.835×1.732a
and 3.865×1.732a are added at the left and right sides of the chirped SPCWG,
respectively, to couple light into and out of the structure. A Gaussian pulse source
centered at 0.2992(2πc/a) with a frequency width ⊿ω=0.0038(2πc/a) is then injected at
the input port, which corresponds to a bandwidth of nearly 20 nm centered at 1550 nm for
a PC lattice constant of 465 nm. From the optimized band structure shown in Fig. 14(b),
this frequency band range corresponds to a normalized wave vector range from 0.3287 to
0.39735. Thus, a group index of 18.1 calculated from c⊿k/⊿ω [44] is expected to be
obtained from this chirped structure. As shown in Fig. 17, four monitors are added at
positions a, 5a, 155a, 159a, respectively, in the propagation direction to detect the flux in
time. The relative pulse shape expansion is 7.586%. The temporal stretches of pulses at

the output port are due mainly to the shape deviation of the ideal band shape, as dy is
varied in the chirped SPCWG. Thus using the time-of-flight method [57], the average
group index in the chirped SPCWG can be calculated with 16.067. Therefore, slow light
with wide bandwidth is observed in the SPCWG section, which is in reasonable
agreement with that predicted from the band structure.
Fig. 17 Structure of the chirped SPCWG. Black denotes silicon, white denotes
air, and gray denotes silicon nanocrystals in silica. The four red lines denote the
four monitors numbered one to four, respectively.
Pulse propagation, assuming other chirp ranges of dy,is demonstrated with a small
relative pulse shape expansion of monitor 3 to monitor 2 of less than 8 %. If we chirp dy
within a narrower range from 0.84×1.732a to 0.86×1.732a over a SPCWG of the same
length, a higher average group index of 20.3 with a narrower bandwidth of about 13.1 nm
can be obtained. In the same length, if the chirp range of dy is further reduced, such as
chirping dy from 0.845×1.732a to 0.855×1.732a, from 0.8475×1.732a to 0.8525×1.732a,
and from 0.849×1.732a to 0.851×1.732a, a higher average group index of 29.1, 40.23,
and 48.5 is obtained, but with a narrower bandwidth of about 6.5, 3.26, and 1.3 nm,
respectively. By even further decreasing the chirp range of dy, even higher group index
and narrower bandwidth would be obtained. In principle, the delay and bandwidth issue
still constrains the slow light in the chirped structure. The group-index-bandwidth product
is reduced while the average group index is increased, the wider bandwidth
proportionally reduces the average group index, which is averaged by the chirp, and a
smaller slope (dy/L) of the chirp leads to a larger average group index but with a narrower
bandwidth [44-46].
4 MICRORING RESONATOR SENSOR
The optical sensor in silicon nanophotonic devices is based on the index-sensing theory.
The analyte surrounds the silicon waveguide as liquid, gas, or molecular particles. The
change of reflective index of the analyte can affect the effective index of the silicon
waveguide as the basic light-matter interaction. In the optical resonance, the light mode
confined in the waveguide is enhanced, while the part of the evanescent field has more
interaction with the surrounding analyte. The optical resonance is investigated based on
the silicon microring resonator in our works. With the weak coupling coefficient between
the straight waveguide and the bend waveguide, the microring resonator can realize a
high quality factor (Q) intrinsically based on the high transmission silicon waveguide.
This high Q resonance is sensitive to the change of the effective reflection index of the
silicon waveguide, namely resonance wavelength shift or intensity change at a fixed
wavelength. The basic sensing approach has been studied in some works [58-60]. To
improve the performance of the sensor, one way is to increase the Q factor of the system,
but it is rather hard to do in practice. Another way is to develop a new sensing scheme.
Our work focuses mainly on manipulating the interaction between the resonances from

the microring resonators to achieve higher sensitivity in the optical sensor.
4.1 Dual-microring-resonator interference sensor

By adding a reference microring (MR), a multiresonance sensing scheme is achieved [61]
as shown in Fig. 18. The sensing MR acts directly with the analyte, while the reference
MR is stable. In the absence of the analyte, the resonances of the two MRs mutually
interfere through the Mach–Zehnder (MZ) effect. The spectra of the two MRs are
different due to their different radii. Because the two MRs are designed so that one
specific resonance of each microring occurs at the same wavelength λ0 in the absence of
the analyte (called the overlap resonance), their combined resonance in the MZ geometry
forms a central resonance in the symmetric transmission, with dips associated with the
nonoverlapping resonances of the individual MRs (shown later) This is a specific feature
associated with the overlapping resonance dip that provides the means of sensing the
analyte. Namely, the presence of the analyte shifts the resonances of the sensing ring, thus
altering the spectral properties of the overlapping resonance of the pair of MRs in the
device. The mechanism for the single-MR resonance shift is as follows. One of the MRs
is sensitive to an analyte that shifts the background refractive index. This in turn shifts the
resonance of that MR, leading to a shift with respect to the unchanged resonance of the
reference MR. Consequently, the combined resonance in the MZ geometry, which
involves interfering light propagating through the two arms of the device, is altered. It is
shown next that the spectral change for the dual-MR sensor in the MZ geometry due to
the analyte can be considerably greater than that for a comparable single-MR sensor,
which means higher sensitivity can be realized.
Fig. 18. MZ-coupled dual-MR sensor. Ring 1 coupled to one arm of the MZI is
a sensing MR, while ring 2 coupled to the other arm is a reference MR.
In the dual-MR sensing scheme, the reference MR is not affected by the surrounding
changes. Thus, its effective index remains the same in the presence of the analyte, which
means that the resonance spectrum of the reference MR is stable during sensing. In
contrast, the spectrum of the sensing MR shifts by Δ λ , depending on the effective
refractive-index shift Δneff due to the analyte. The spectrum of the dual-MR sensor,
however, exhibits this shift through the (near) overlap of a fresh pair of single-MR
resonances at λ0 ' , as shown in Fig. 19.

Fig. 19. (a) Transmission spectrum through lower arm of MZI containing
reference MR (ring 2). Transmission spectrum of arm with sensing MR (ring 1)
(b) without and (c) with analyte present. R1=221μm, a=0.86, and neff=4.8×10−4
RIU.
Thus, the change in the overlap resonance can be expressed as
λshift = λ0 '− λ0 . (3)
The sensitivity of the dual-MR sensor is defined as the ratio of λshift to the variation of
the effective index Δneff due to the analyte,
λshift 1 Δλ , (4)
S= = ⋅
Δneff 1 − a Δneff
where a is the ratio of the two ring radii as a = R2 R1 . The sensitivity of the dual-MR
sensor is 1/(1-a) that of an otherwise comparable single-MR sensor. When a approaches 1,
i.e., R1~R2, the sensitivity of the dual-MR sensor may be orders of magnitude higher than
that of the single-MR sensor. We now explicitly consider the optical intensity at the MZI
output. The 3-dB coupler in the MZI can split input light equally, which can result in a
symmetrical spectrum centered around the overlap resonance. The resonances overlap
at λ0 , and there is no interference at the MZI output port. For the case where the ring
resonances do not overlap, there is a phase difference. Thus, the transmission dip is split.
Figure 20 shows the MZI spectra for overlapping and nonoverlapping resonances
resulting in different shapes.

Fig. 20. MZI-coupled dual-ring sensor, (a) reference ring without analyte, (b)
sensing ring, (c) MZI-coupled rings and presence of analyte, (d) sensing ring,
and (e) MZI-coupled rings. neff =2.45, R1 =50 μm, and a=0.9. Δneff =2×10-4
RIU, Δλ =0.28 nm, and λshift =3.1 nm.
In this study, we have discussed the theory of the dual-MR MZI sensor. The dramatic
shift of the overlapping resonance due to the presence of an analyte leads to a high
sensitivity of the device compared to an otherwise comparable single-MR sensor. In our
simulations, the rings were chosen to have radii R1=505 μm and R2=500 μm; the device
was predicted to have a 0.31-nm overlap resonance shift to a sensing index change of 2×
10-6RIU. Moreover, the sensitivity is predicted to be 100 times that of the single-MR
sensor.
4.2 Fano resonance intensity sensor
Besides the multiresonance approach in wavelength shift sensing, intensity sensing based
on Fano resonance is also studied and demonstrated in practice to enhance the sensitivity
of the microring resonator sensor [62]. By introducing a Fabry-Perot (FP) resonance
formed by the end-facet reflections with a small free spectral range (FSR) and low
extinction ratio, the coupled resonance in a microring resonator is investigated as a Fano
resonance, as shown in Fig. 21. The slope of the coupled resonance is studied as one of
the most important factors in sensing; it is thus shown that the sensitivity can be enhanced
by steepening the slope by means other than boosting Q. Thus, our work points the way
to inexpensive and easily fabricated high-sensitivity devices for chemical detection.
Fig. 21. MR resonator with end-facet reflection.
Coupled waveguide-MR devices were fabricated using the SOI wafer shown in Fig.
22, which has a 1-μm buffered oxide layer topped with 230 nm of Si. Structures are
defined by electron-beam lithography using a JEOL JBX-9300FS system, and the e-beam
resist is ZEP520A. Then the pattern is etched with an STS Standard Oxide Etcher. The
width of the silicon waveguide is 500 nm, the radius of the racetrack ring is 10 μm, and
the coupling length is 8 μm in this case. The SEM picture is shown in Fig. 22.

Fig. 22. SEM image of racetrack microring.
The silicon waveguide has an end-facet field reflection r of about 0.4, which is based
on the taped waveguide end 3.5 μm wide. In Fig. 23, the experimental resonance is
represented by the circular points. The solid line represents the simulated coupled
resonance. Both sides of the resonance dip in the measured data are modified with respect
to the Lorentzian, and the line shape is well fit by the solid theoretical curve. The coupled
resonance is therefore demonstrated in theory and experiment. The loaded quality factor
is measured as Q=3.8 × 104. The slope is much steeper in the non-Lorentzian line shape,
resulting from coupling to the FP resonances. With the steeper slope of the asymmetric
resonance, a detection limit of ~ 10-8 RIU in a 30-dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) system
is obtained. Though Q is not extremely high, a significantly steeper resonance slope is
obtained here and demonstrates our theory in practice.
Fig. 23. Resonances in a Si MR resonator. The dashed line

represents the pure resonance, the solid line represents the
combined resonance, and the circles represent the experimentally
measured spectrum.
5 CONCLUSIONS
We propose and construct three types of silicon photonic devices for the purpose of
manipulating optical propagation and transmission in the nanoscale domain. The devices
offer enhanced performance in reflecting, coupling, sensing, and slowing light with the
help of optical resonance. All of these devices are based on a SOI platform and are
compatible with conventional CMOS technology, which makes them possible for mass
production.

Acknowledgments
The authors would like to thank the members of the Silicon Photonics and Microsystems
group in the State Key Laboratory of Advanced Optical Communication Systems and
Networks, Peking University, for their helpful discussions. This work was supported in
part by the National Natural Science Foundation of China under grant numbers 60578048
and 60977018, and the National Basic Research Program of China under grant number
2006CB708310.
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Zhiping (James) Zhou is a "Changjiang" Professor at Peking University. He is also an

adjunct professor at the School of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the Georgia
Institute of Technology. He received both BS and MS degrees from Huazhong University
of Science and Technology (HUST), China, in 1982 and 1984, respectively, and the PhD

(EE) degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology in 1993. He was a Founder and
Vice President of Production at Hengnan Transistor Factory in China (1971 to1978) and a
guest scientist of NIST (1987 to 1989). He is a Fellow of SPIE, a senior member of IEEE,
a member of OSA, and a life member of PSC. From 1993 to 2005, he was with the
Microelectronics Research Center at the Georgia Institute of Technology, where he
engaged in research and development in the areas of semiconductor devices and sensors;
photonic devices and sensors; ultrafast optical communications; integrated
optoelectronics; nanotechnology; and vector rigorous diffraction analysis. From 2005 to
2008, he was with HUST as a "Changjiang" special professorship appointed by the
Ministry of Education of China.
Huaming Wu received his MS degree in optical engineering from Nanchang Hangkong

University, Nanchang, China, in June 2006. Since September 2006 he has been a PhD
candidate in optoelectronic information engineering at Huazhong University of Science
and Technology, Wuhan, China. His general research interests are silicon photonics and
maskless lithography. His current research is on the design and fabrication of
subwavelength grating related devices in SOI platforms for reflecting, coupling, and
slowing light.
Junbo Feng received his BS and PhD degrees from Huzhong University of Science and
Technology, China, in 2004 and 2009, respectively. He is now working as a postdoc in the
Tsinghua-Foxconn Nanotechnology Research Center, Tsinghua University. His research
interests include design and fabrication of photonic devices, semiconductor
manufacturing technology, and carbon nanotube technology.
Jin Hou received his BS degree in thermal power engineering in June 2003 from Harbin
University of Science and Technology. He received his MS degree in instrument science
and technology in June 2006 from Harbin Institute of Technology. Now he is studying for
his PhD degree in optoelectronic information engineering at Huazhong University of
Science and Technology under supervision by Zhiping Zhou. He is currently also a
visiting PhD student in David S. Citrin's reasearch group at the Georgia Institute of
Technology . His current research interests include nanophotonics, photonic crystal
devices, and integrated optoelectronics.
Huaxiang Yi received his BS degree from Huazhong University of Science and

Technology in 2006 in optical engineering. He was studying as a visiting student at the
Georgia Institute of Technology for one year and a half. He is currently working toward
the PhD degree in the Silicon Photonics and Microsystems Group, Peking University. His
research interests include nanofabrication technology and the design and fabrication of
integrated optical devices in the applications of telecommunication, biochemical sensing,
and medical diagnoses.
Xingjun Wang received the BE, ME, and PhD degrees from the Dalian University of
Technology, China, in 1999, 2002, and 2005, respectively. From 2005 to 2007, he was a
postdoctoral researcher in the Nanoscale Physics and Devices Laboratory, Institute of
Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences. From 2007 to 2009, he was a JSPS postdoctoral
follow in thte Department of Electronic Engineering, University of Electro-
Communications, Japan. Now, he is an associate professor in the School of Electronics
Engineering and Computer Science, Peking University, China. His research interests
focus on light sources and amplifiers for Si photonics.

Silicon Nanophotonic Devices Based On Resonance Enhancement

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