Infrared and Laser Engineering, Volume. 51, Issue 5, 20220214(2022)

Fabrication of silicon nitride-based integrated microcavity optical frequency comb devices (Invited)

Zhendong Zhu1... Pingwei Lin1, Zhaoyang Sun2, Benfeng Bai2 and Xueshen Wang1 |Show fewer author(s)
Author Affiliations
  • 1National Institute of Metrology, Beijing 100029, China
  • 2Department of Precision Instrument, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China
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    Microcavity optical frequency comb (also called the microcavity comb), a subversive technology, is an integrated light source produced from a four-wave mixing process in a nonlinear optical microcavity. As a precision device with excellent properties of optical frequency, microcavity combs can be extensively applied in many fields such as molecular spectroscopy, coherent communication, LiDAR, metrology, and lightweight equipment for airborne system. Here, the fabrication of integrated silicon nitride (Si3N4) microcavity optical frequency comb devices was reported. The balance between the stress, thickness and stoichiometry of Si3N4 was well controlled. A reliable method was proposed to fabricate Si3N4 optical film with enough thickness and stoichiometry to meet the requirements of anomalous dispersion and reducing light absorption. The modified technology of Damascene process with microstructures to decline the stress of thick Si3N4 film was developed to reduce defects. Furthermore, the mask via with a 30 nm thick alumina compensation layer was optimized and a practicable etching process was used for fabricating Si3N4 microresonators with sub-15 nm roughness of lateral walls of microring and waveguide. The experimental results show a high quality of Si3N4 microcavity. Additionally, a coherent Kerr optical frequency comb spectrum can be produced with a wide spectral range from 1480 nm to 1640 nm via dual light pumping.

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    Zhendong Zhu, Pingwei Lin, Zhaoyang Sun, Benfeng Bai, Xueshen Wang. Fabrication of silicon nitride-based integrated microcavity optical frequency comb devices (Invited)[J]. Infrared and Laser Engineering, 2022, 51(5): 20220214

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    Paper Information

    Category: Special issue—Microcavity optical frequency comb technology

    Received: Mar. 15, 2022

    Accepted: --

    Published Online: Jun. 14, 2022

    The Author Email:

    DOI:10.3788/IRLA20220214

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