Synthesis of second-order nonlinearities in dielectric-semiconductor-dielectric metamaterials

Abstract

We demonstrate a large effective second-order nonlinear optical susceptibility in electronic optical metamaterials based on sputtered dielectric-semiconductor-dielectric multilayers of silicon dioxide/amorphous silicon (a-Si)/aluminum oxide. The interfacial fixed charges (Qf) with opposite signs on either side of dielectric-semiconductor interfaces result in a non-zero built-in electric field within the a-Si layer, which couples to the large third-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor of a-Si and induces an effective second-order nonlinear susceptibility tensor χeff(2). The value of the largest components of the effective χeff(2) tensor, i.e., χ(2)zzz, is determined experimentally to be 2 pm/V for the as-fabricated metamaterials and increases to 8.5 pm/V after the post-thermal annealing process. The constituents and fabrication methods make these metamaterials CMOS compatible, enabling efficient nonlinear devices for chip-scale silicon photonic integrated circuits.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Mar 13, 2017
Source ID
10.1063/1.4978640

Entities

People

  • Christian Wurm
  • Eric E Fullerton
  • Felipe Vallini
  • Hung-hsi Lin
  • Matthew W. Puckett
  • Mu-han Yang
  • Rajat Sharma
  • Sergio Montoya
  • Yeshaiahu Fainman

Organizations

  • Army Research Office
  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • National Science Foundation
  • Office of Naval Research
  • University of California

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Materials Science and Engineering.
  • Semiconductor Device Technology

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Microelectronics - Graphene