Innovative photonic devices realization using heterogeneous integration and quantum well dot intermixing

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Contrary to the microelectronics industry, the photonics industry is not based upon a single core technology as important as CMOS on silicon. The realization of photonic components requires multiple fabrication processes specific to the variety of materials involved. A direct consequence of this situation is the absence of large scale fabrication technology for the production of Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs). One of the reasons for this situation is related to the need for materials that exhibit both low propagation losses, like silica for example, as well as high optical gain such as III-V semiconductors - to date, no one single material can provide both properties efficiently. Furthermore, epitaxial growth of active materials does not allow the efficient realization of monolithic structures incorporating multiple distinct functions. As a result, there are currently no established fabrication processes that allow large scale integration of diverse optical functions on monolithic components. Therefore, complex photonic circuits are currently fabricated from numerous discrete components and the packaging costs associated with such devices often exceed that of the discrete components themselves. This research project aims to further develop two fabrication processes for integrated photonic components: quantum dot/well intermixing and heterogeneous integration of low loss silica waveguides with III-V materials gain sections. The tools required for this work, are involved in standard commercial microelectronic processes currently used for the fabrication of microprocessors, memories, and silicon on insulator (SOI) substrates. The processes developed within this research are expected to have a significant impact on increasing the functionality and reducing the fabrication cost of integrated photonic components for both the telecommunications and "lab on a chip" type bio-sensors.