Overcoming Si3N4 film stress limitations for high quality factor ring resonators

Silicon nitride (Si3N4) ring resonators are critical for a variety of photonic devices. However the intrinsically high film stress of silicon nitride has limited both the optical confinement and quality factor (Q) of ring resonators. We show that stress in Si3N4 films can be overcome by introducing mechanical trenches for isolating photonic devices from propagating cracks. We demonstrate a Si3N4 ring resonator with an intrinsic quality factor of 7 million, corresponding to a propagation loss of 4.2 dB/m. This is the highest quality factor reported to date for high confinement Si3N4 ring resonators in the 1550 nm wavelength range. (c) 2013 Optical Society of America