Focus
Silicon photonics
- Focus issue:
- August 2010 Volume 4 No 8 pp491-578
The field of silicon photonics is gaining significant momentum because it allows optical devices to be made cheaply using standard semiconductor fabrication techniques and integrated with microelectronic chips. This Focus Issue provides a comprehensive collection of articles that review up-to-date progress and the latest news in the field, as well as giving some ideas about what the future has in store and what challenges should be expected.
Editorial
Simply silicon - pp491
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.190
Silicon integrated optical chips that can generate, modulate, process and detect light signals offer the tantalizing prospect of cost-effectively meeting the ever-increasing demands on data speed and bandwidth.
Commentaries
Towards fabless silicon photonics - pp492 - 494
Michael Hochberg & Tom Baehr-Jones
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.172
Silicon photonic devices can be built using commercial CMOS chip fabrication facilities, or 'fabs'. However, nearly all research groups continue to design, build and test chips internally, rather than leveraging shared CMOS foundry infrastructure.
Full text - Information storage | PDF (365KB) - Information storage
Mid-infrared photonics in silicon and germanium pp495 - 497
Richard Soref
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.171
Ingenious techniques are needed to extend group IV photonics from near-infrared to mid-infrared wavelengths. If achieved, the reward could be on-chip CMOS optoelectronic systems for use in spectroscopy, chemical and biological sensing, and free-space communications.
Full text - A bright future for quantum communications | PDF (260KB) - A bright future for quantum communications
Interview
Integrating silicon photonics - pp498 - 499
Interview with Mario Paniccia
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.189
Mario Paniccia, Intel fellow and director of Intel's Photonics Technology Lab, talks to Nature Photonics about the company's progress in commercializing high-speed silicon photonics.
Full text - Integrating silicon photonics | PDF (311KB) - Integrating silicon photonics
Progress article
Recent progress in lasers on silicon - pp511 - 517
Di Liang & John E. Bowers
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.167
Silicon lasers have long been a goal for semiconductor scientists. This Progress Article reviews the most recent developments in this field, including silicon Raman lasers, the first germanium-on-silicon lasers operating at room temperature, and hybrid silicon microring and microdisk lasers. Challenges and opportunities for the present approaches are also discussed.
Abstract - title | Full text - Recent progress in lasers on silicon | PDF (2,438KB) - Recent progress in lasers on silicon
Reviews
Silicon optical modulators - pp518 - 526
G. T. Reed, G. Mashanovich, F. Y. Gardes & D. J. Thomson
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.179
CMOS-compatible silicon optical modulators with high modulation speeds, large bandwidths, small footprints, low losses and ultralow power consumption are needed for current optical communications systems relying on highly integrated on-chip optical circuits. This Review summarizes the techniques used to implement silicon optical modulators, gives an outlook for these devices, and discusses the candidate solutions of the future.
Abstract - Silicon optical modulators | Full text - Silicon optical modulators | PDF (3,057KB) - Silicon optical modulators
High-performance Ge-on-Si photodetectors - pp527 - 534
Jurgen Michel, Jifeng Liu & Lionel C. Kimerling
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.157
Owing to their excellent optoelectronic properties, Ge-on-Si photodetector can be monolithically integrated with silicon-based read-out circuits for applications such as high-performance photonic data links and low-cost infrared imaging at low power consumption. This Review covers the major developments in Ge-on-Si photodetectors, including epitaxial growth and strain engineering, free-space and waveguide-integrated devices, as well as recent progress in Ge-on-Si avalanche photodetectors.
Abstract - High-performance Ge-on-Si photodetectors | Full text - High-performance Ge-on-Si photodetectors | PDF (357KB) - High-performance Ge-on-Si photodetectors
Nonlinear silicon photonics - pp 535 - 544
J. Leuthold, C. Koos & W. Freude
doi:10.1038/nphoton.2010.185
The increasing capability for manufacturing a wide variety of optoelectronic devices from polymer and polymer-silicon hybrids, including transmission fibre, modulators, detectors and light sources, suggests that organic photonics has a promising future in communications and other applications.
Abstract - Nonlinear silicon photonics | Full text - Nonlinear silicon photonics | PDF (286KB) - Nonlinear silicon photonics