Advancements in Silicon Photonics

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the gradual and time-needed advancements made in the field of photonics. It also highlights the evolution taken place in the devices which are being used and prepared for future trends as well. The traditional and nontraditional motivations regarding selection of silicon as the enabling material for the usefulness of photonics and SOI waveguides and their types are also presented with great emphasis and depth. Reviewing the silicon photonics technology, it is evident that this field has grown rapidly in the recent years. The revolutionized advancement in information technology has spread the interest of nonlinear photonics to every corner of the world. Presently installed power-hungry infrastructure of telecom and information industry has to be improved or changed with silicon-based energy efficient green photonics. The data-hungry new telecom applications, super computer interconnection structures, sensors, and medicine are a few examples of ever increasing Keywords Silicon photonics • Silicon-on-insulator waveguides • Waveguides

Theory of topological insulator waveguides: polarization control and the enhancement of the magneto-electric effect

“…Fabrication of such a device is not infeasible. Current technology for on-chip optical signal processing in silicon is able to produce waveguides in the range of 1–5 cm 39 40 . In comparison, fabrication of structures with topological insulators, such as Bi 2 Se 3 , is still in its infancy.…”