Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

Although silicon is unquestionably the dominant material for microelectronics technology, it has never been considered to be the obvious best choice for photonic devices. The III-V semiconductors, glasses and ferroelectrics all have established roles in photonics and in many respects outperform silicon. However, there is great potential for cost reduction if the established infrastructure of the microelectronics industry can be applied to photonic device manufacturing. The ultimate goal of silicon photonics research is to establish a platform for integrated optical circuits that is compatible with the existing technology for manufacturing microelectronic chips and will lead to a merger of the two technologies. The objective of this research proposal is to contribute to this larger goal in three areas. First, we will work on the development of discrete silicon-based nanophotonic components. Our current work on narrow band filters and couplers based on grating structures will continue. We will extend this to include tunable filters employing ring resonator structures, which use small waveguide loops to resonantly select out narrow spectral bands for which the loop length is an integer number of wavelengths. Second, we will continue to collaborate with researchers at McMaster, Carleton and NRC on developing techniques for the monolithic integration of photonic and electronic devices on a single silicon chip. Finally, we will develop new types of optical sensors that exploit silicon photonic technologies and address the needs of industrial partners who have identified specific applications for which conventional electrical sensors are not suitable. We will make temperature, strain and vibration sensors consisting of small silicon waveguide chips that are coupled to optical fibers for optical interrogation.