title: Wide tuning of silicon-on-insulator ring resonators with a liquid crystal cladding.
abstract: Wide electrical tuning of silicon-on-insulator ring resonators is demonstrated using a top cladding layer of nematic liquid crystals. A tuning range of 31 nm is demonstrated for ring resonators guiding the TM mode, covering nearly the entire C-band of optical communications. Ring resonators guiding the TE mode can be tuned over 4.5 nm. The combination of a liquid crystal director calculation and a fully anisotropic mode solver confirms the interpretation of these experimental results. The realization of broad and low-power tuning in silicon-on-insulator opens up new opportunities in the field of tunable lasers, filters, and detectors.
authors.affiliation: Photonics Research Group, INTEC Department, Ghent University—IMEC Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. Wout.DeCort@ugent.be
authors.forename: Wout
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: De Cort
authors.forename: Jeroen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Beeckman
authors.forename: Tom
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Claes
authors.forename: Kristiaan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Neyts
authors.forename: Roel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Baets