Comparative Study of Nano-Slot Silicon Waveguides Covered by Dye Doped and Undoped Polymer Cladding

Abstract

Nonlinear optical dyes doped in optical polymer matrices are widely used for electro-optical devices. Linear optical properties change with dye concentration, which leads to a change in modal properties, especially in nano-structured integrated waveguides such as silicon slot-waveguides. Here, we investigate the influence of a nonlinear optical dye on the performance of a silicon-organic hybrid slot-waveguide. A simulation study of the modal and optical confinement properties is carried out and dependence of the structural parameters of the slot-waveguide and the organic cladding material is taken into account. As cladding material, a guest-host polymer system is employed comprising the nonlinear optical dye Disperse Red 1 (DR1) doped in a poly[methyl methacrylate] (PMMA) matrix. The refractive indices of doped and undoped PMMA were deduced from ellipsometric data. We present a guideline for an optimized slot-waveguide design for the fabrication in silicon-on-insulator technology giving rise to scalable, high-performance integrated electro-optical modulators.

Optical Characterization of Ultra-Thin Films of Azo-Dye-Doped Polymers Using Ellipsometry and Surface Plasmon Resonance Spectroscopy

“…We did not measure neat PMMA independently, but the theoretical dispersion curve of PMMA extracted from the database. (i.e., from EASE software) and used in our Bruggeman effective medium match well with that of the literature [44]. Indeed, the refractive index of PMMA extracted from the EASE software at 632.8 nm is n PMMA 632.8 nm = 1.4888, and is close enough to the value of n PMMA 632.8 nm = 1.4889 that we found in our previous works using plasmonic structures [59].…”

“…For both SPR and ellipsometry, the measurements at each concentration were repeated three times and the value of and was calculated as the average of the three measurements for each sample. Table 1 summarizes the results of and of all the samples measured with UV-vis spectroscopy, SE, and SPR, together with data from the literature [43,44]. A good agreement between the data from our paper and the literature is obtained, and interestingly enough, and obtained from SE measurements are reasonably close to those obtained by SPR spectroscopy.…”

“…Azo dyes also have potential applications in dye chemistry and bio-photonics [41,42], driving a natural interest in their optical characterization, namely the determination of the real and imaginary parts of n c as a function of the wavelength of light. For example, Prêtre et al developed a method for calculating the real and imaginary parts of n c and the first order molecular hyperpolarizability of NLO azo-polymers for SHG based on UV-vis absorption spectroscopy and SE [43], and Bodarenko et al determined n c for an azo-dye-doped polymer by SE, driven by the need for application of EO polymers in silicon-hybrid-organic photonics [44]. Several other researchers determined the optical properties of azo-dye-containing materials by SE [43,45,46].…”

On-Chip Dispersion Measurement of the Quadratic Electro-Optic Effect in Nonlinear Optical Polymers Using a Photonic Integrated Circuit Technology

“…In particular, a simulation study of slot waveguides comprising the same EO polymer as in the present work can be found in Ref. [28].…”

Influence of PMMA on All-Inorganic Halide Perovskite CsPbBr3 Quantum Dots Combined with Polymer Matrix

“…The luminance of the QD-CsPbBr 3 /PMMA film and QD-CsPbBr 3 :PMMA film excited by the laser seem darker than that of the QD-CsPbBr 3 film owing to the total reflection effect and Snell’s law. The refractive indexes of QD-CsPbBr 3 and PMMA are 2.3 and 1.47, respectively [43,44]. Therefore, only around 12% of the light inside the CsPbBr 3 film from the surface radiates to the outside, according to the light escape cone [45].…”