Monolithic Mid-Infrared Integrated Photonics Using Silicon-on-Epitaxial Barium Titanate Thin Films

Broadband mid-infrared (mid-IR) photonic circuits that integrate silicon waveguides and epitaxial barium titanate (BTO) thin films are demonstrated using the complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor process. The epitaxial BTO thin films are grown on lanthanum aluminate (LAO) substrates by the pulsed laser deposition technique, wherein a broad infrared transmittance between lambda = 2.5 and 7 mu m is observed. The optical waveguiding direction is defined by the high-refractive-index amorphous Si (a-Si) ridge structure developed on the BTO layer. Our waveguides show a sharp fundamental mode over the broad mid-IR spectrum, whereas its optical field distribution between the a-Si and BTO layers can be modified by varying the height of the a-Si ridge. With the advantages of broad mid-IR transparency and the intrinsic electro-optic properties, our monolithic Si on a ferroelectric BTO platform will enable tunable mid-IR microphotonics that are desired for high-speed optical logic gates and chip-scale biochemical sensors.