Photonic crystal devices for integrated optoelectronic systems

One-dimensional and two-dimensional photonic crystal devices for integrated optoelectronic systems are explored. The demonstration of low-threshold, uniform, 980 nm bottom-emitting vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) arrays for hybrid silicon electronic/photonic integration is presented. The design, fabrication, and characterization of two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystal defect waveguides on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material system are also discussed.; High performance, low-threshold, 980 nm bottom-emitting VCSEEs on GaAs substrate are demonstrated. Uniform 8 x 8 bottom-emitting 980 nm VCSEL arrays on GaAs substrates also are shown. The elements of the uniform 8 x 8 VCSEL array show an average threshold current of 321 muA, and an average external quantum efficiency of 55.8%. Hybrid integration between low-threshold, uniform 8x8 VCSEL arrays and a silicon mating substrate using indium bumps flip-chip bonding process is demonstrated.; The electromagnetic properties of two-dimensional photonic crystals are discussed. The plane wave expansion (PWE) method is employed to obtain the photonic band structure of infinitely long two-dimensional triangular lattice photonic crystals. Results from the finite element method (FEM) provide the dispersion relation of two-dimensional photonic crystal slabs and optimized Y-branch waveguides. Three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations also provide a model of the propagation loss of two-dimensional photonic crystal defect waveguides. Several key nano-scale fabrication techniques for photonic crystal waveguides in SOI material system are presented. The correspondence between the theoretical and the experimental light propagation characteristics in five-line (W5) defect photonic crystal waveguides of triangular lattice photonic crystal slab is presented. The calculated group index of 4.1 for the fundamental mode of the W5 waveguide agrees well with the measured group index value of 4.0. A novel and simple design approach for a two-dimensional photonic crystal waveguide directional coupler is proposed. Photonic crystal directional couplers are fabricated and characterized. The demonstration of the optical power switching between two single-line defect (W1) photonic crystal waveguides is presented.