We demonstrate the engineering of waveguide dispersion by lithographically patterning the polymer cladding on silicon nitride waveguide resonators. Both normal and anomalous dispersion, ranging from − 462 to 409 ps/nm/km, can be achieved for the same waveguide dimension within an integrated photonic chip. In the meantime, this simple process shows no impact on the waveguide loss and the quality factor of the waveguide resonators, offering flexibility in tailoring designable dispersion for a universal photonic platform. In addition, by adjusting the coverage ratio of cladding, relatively low dispersion (≈ − 130 ps/nm/km) is also demonstrated in the same waveguide resonator, yielding the potentials for zero-dispersive waveguide resonators by a proper coverage ratio of the polymer cladding.

In this work, we demonstrate dispersion engineering of silicon nitride waveguide resonators with atomic layer deposition (ALD). We conducted theoretical and experimental analyses on the waveguide dispersion with air cladding, hafnium oxide (HfO2) cladding, and aluminum oxide (Al2O3) cladding. By employing ALD HfO2 as the cladding layer, the dispersion of waveguide can be tuned to a finer degree in the normal regime at a wavelength of 1550 nm. On the other hand, using ALD Al2O3 cladding provides the waveguide dispersion that spans regimes in normal, near-zero, and anomalous dispersion.