title: Broadband enhancement of light emission in silicon slot waveguides.
abstract: We investigate the light emission properties of electrical dipole emitters inside 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) silicon slot waveguides and evaluate the spontaneous emission enhancement (F(p)) and waveguide coupling ratio (beta). Under realistic conditions, we find that greater than 10-fold enhancement in F(p) can be achieved, together with a beta as large as 0.95. In contrast to the case of high Q optical resonators, such performance enhancements are obtained over a broad wavelength region, which can cover the entire emission spectrum of popular optical dopants such as Er. The enhanced luminescence efficiency and the strong coupling into a limited set of well-defined waveguide modes enables a new class of power-efficient, CMOS-compatible, waveguide-based light sources.
authors.affiliation: Geballe Laboratory for Advanced Materials, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: Young Chul
authors.initials: YC
authors.lastname: Jun
authors.forename: Ryan M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Briggs
authors.forename: Harry A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Atwater
authors.forename: Mark L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Brongersma
mesh_terms: D017076:Computer-Aided Design; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D008027:Light; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012542:Scattering, Radiation; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D012825:Silicon / Q000737:chemistry*
chemical_list: D012825:Silicon