Development of photonic devices based on the strained silicon technology

• Autores: Irene Olivares Sánchez Mellado
• Directores de la Tesis: Pablo Sanchis Kilders (dir. tes.)
• Lectura: En la Universitat Politècnica de València ( España ) en 2021
• Idioma: español
• Tribunal Calificador de la Tesis: Jaime García Ruperez (presid.), Isaac Suárez Álvarez (secret.), Vivien Laurent (voc.)
• Programa de doctorado: Programa de Doctorado en Telecomunicación por la Universitat Politècnica de València
• Materias:
  • Ciencias tecnológicas
    • Tecnología electrónica
      • Dispositivos semiconductores
    • Tecnología de la instrumentación
      • Dispositivos electroópticos
    • Tecnología de las telecomunicaciones
• Enlaces
  • Tesis en acceso abierto en: RiuNet
• Resumen

  • In the last decade, silicon has emerged as the platform of choice for developing photonic integrated circuits due to its versatility, small footprint and the possibility of a low cost, large-scale CMOS compatible production. The conversion of high-speed electrical signals into optical digital data is a critical function for modern data communication technology. The most effective way for enabling ultra-fast electro-optical modulation is currently based on the Pockels effect, which is the basis of commercial modulators based on lithium niobate and polymers.

    However, the implementation of such functionality is prevented in the silicon platform due to the inversion symmetry of the silicon lattice. In this context, strained silicon emerged more than a decade ago as a revolutionary solution for breaking that centrosymmetry and, thus, allowing Pockels effect in the silicon material itself. However, despite the encouraging results from initial findings, following studies questioned the origin of the measured electro-optic response. In fact, the presence of several limiting factors was also later highlighted and a rather low strain induced ¿(2) in the range of several pm/V was more recently estimated. The work developed on this thesis aims at contributing to push forward the strained silicon field by investigating and tackling such limiting factors to enable an efficient Pockels effect. Furthermore, the trapping properties observed in strained silicon structures have been exploited to develop a non-volatile photonic device.