Journal
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NUCLEAR SCIENCE
Volume 68, Issue 5, Pages 785-792Publisher
IEEE-INST ELECTRICAL ELECTRONICS ENGINEERS INC
DOI: 10.1109/TNS.2021.3051802
Keywords
Integrated silicon photonics; optical single-event transients (OSETs); optoelectronic devices; pulsed-laser testing; radiation effects; single-event effects (SEEs)
Funding
- Defense Threat Reduction Agency [HDTRA1-16-1-0018, HDTRA-11710053]
- National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship [DGE-1650044]
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Experimental results show that the extinction of optical power in waveguides due to optical single-event transients (OSETs) is dependent on the number of injected electron-hole pairs. The fractional extinction remains constant regardless of the optical power level, raising concerns about using integrated silicon photonics for radiation-intensive applications.
Optical single-event transients (OSETs) were measured for the first time in integrated silicon-photonic waveguides. A custom test fixture and novel experimental setup were used at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory to induce a dense cloud of electron-hole pairs (EHPs) in a waveguide by the two-photon absorption process. Experimental data showed that the fractional (or percent) extinction of the optical power in the waveguide due to an OSET is dependent on the number of injected EHPs. This fractional extinction was also shown to be constant regardless of the optical power level in the waveguide. These OSETs are a direct result of a reduction in the optical transmission ratio due to transient free-carrier absorption. The peak of the largest measured OSET degraded the transmission ratio by 15%, which, according to simulations, corresponds to roughly 9 x 10(19) cm(-3) peak EHP generation. Simulation results suggest that the EHP density levels generated by heavy ions in space could potentially cause up to 100% fractional extinction of light in the waveguide, that is, total loss of the optical signal. A simulation technique to predict the OSET effects in any arbitrary photonic circuit is shown. Here, an electrooptic modulator was used as an example. The results of this study pose concerns for use of integrated silicon photonics for radiation-intensive applications.
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