Experimental demonstration of guiding and confining light in nanometer-size low-refractive-index material.
We experimentally demonstrate a novel silicon waveguide structure for guiding and confining light in nanometer-wide low-refractive-index material. The optical field in the low-index material is enhanced because of the discontinuity of the electric field at high-index-contrast interfaces. We measure a 30% reduction of the effective index of light propagating in the novel structure due to the presence of the nanometer-wide low-index region, evidencing the guiding and confinement of light in the low-index material. We fabricate ring resonators based on the structure and show that the structure can be implemented in highly integrated photonics.
School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA. qx23@cornell.edu
Qianfan
Q
Xu
Vilson R
VR
Almeida
Roberto R
RR
Panepucci
Michal
M
Lipson