Lithium niobate, and more recently thin film lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI, TFLN), is a widely used material in integrated photonics due to its excellent optical and electro-optic properties. With the increasing demand for high-speed, high integration density photonic devices, lithium niobate integrated photonics has become an active research area. The focus of the presented technology development is on low-loss waveguides (below 0.1 dB/cm) that enable the integration of a wide variety of devices, including modulators, resonators and frequency converters, on a single chip for applications in quantum technologies. Implications and challenges of wafer-scale fabrication will be discussed.
Backside illumination enables an increase in photoactive area and numerical aperture of Ge-on-Si photodetectors for SWIR applications. The transparency of silicon in the infrared range (λ > 1.1 μm) allows a nearly lossless propagation of incoming light through the Si substrate and an application of various optical microstructures on the rear side of the Si substrate. Moreover, an aluminum front contact covering the whole top area serves as a mirror which extends the optical propagation of the detectable SWIR light through the absorbing layers and hence increases the quantum efficiency.
We developed back-illuminated Ge-on-Si photodiodes to apply such microstructures. Especially the usage of light trapping structures to increase the quantum efficiency of the photodiodes shows great potential. Among the different microstructures we chose black silicon (b-Si) as a promising light trapping candidate. After the fabrication, photodiodes with different configurations were evaluated. The obtained results show a strong increase of the quantum efficiency due to both, the existence of an Al mirror and the application of b-Si.
With the development of micro- & nanofabrication technology, micro- & nanostructures have been widely used in many fields, including spectroscopy, coding, sensor, subwavelength element, etc. With phase masks realized by a combination of electron beam lithography (EBL), near field lithography (NFH) has great potential to fabricate versatile nanostructures, because it combines the advantages of both lithographic methods. Currently, subwavelength structures attract much attention due to their various functions, such as antireflection, polarization beam splitter and filter. In this presentation, aiming at reducing the interface reflection of a fused silica mask of NFH at a wavelength of 441.6 nm and incidence angles of either 0° or 32°. First, we will compare the difference of antireflection property of one-dimensional (1D) and two-dimensional (2D) subwavelength structures with line density of 3600 lines/mm by simulation. Then, the optimized 1D and 2D subwavelength structures with 3600 lines/mm will be fabricated by using EBL-NFH method. Finally, the antireflection property of these 1D and 2D subwavelength structures will be characterized at the wavelength of 441.6 nm.
Soft x-ray varied line spacing grating (VLSG), which is a vital optical element for laser plasma diagnosis and spectrometry analysis, is conventionally fabricated by holographic lithography or mechanical ruling. In order to overcome the issues of the above fabrication methods, a method based on electron beam lithography-near field lithography (EBL-NFH) is proposed to make good use of the flexibility of EBL and the high throughput of NFH. In this paper, we showed a newly designed soft x-ray VLSG with a central groove density of 3600 lines/mm, which is to be realized based on EBL-NFH. First, the optimization of the spatial distribution of line density and groove profile of the VLSG was shown. As an important element in NFH, a fused silica mask plays a key role during NFH in order to obtain a required line density of VLSG. Therefore, second, the transfer relationship of spatial distribution of line densities between fused silica mask and resist grating was investigated in different exposure modes during NFH. We proposed a formulation about the transfer of line density to design of the groove density distribution of a fused silica grating mask. Finally, the spatial distribution of line densities between the fused silica mask, which is to be fabrication by using EBL, was demonstrated.
Thanks to its high quality and low cost, silicon is the material of choice for optical devices operating in the mid-infrared (MIR; 2 μm to 6 μm wavelength). Unfortunately in this spectral region, the refractive index is comparably high (about 3.5) and leads to severe reflection losses of about 30% per interface.
In this work, we demonstrate that self-organized, statistical Black Silicon structures, fabricated by Inductively Coupled Plasma Reactive Ion Etching (ICP-RIE), can be used to effectively suppress interface reflection. More importantly, it is shown that antireflection can be achieved in an image-preserving, non-scattering way. This enables Black Silicon antireflection structures (ARS) for imaging applications in the MIR. It is demonstrated that specular transmittances of 97% can be easily achieved on both flat and curved substrates, e.g. lenses. Moreover, by a combined optical and morphological analysis of a multitude of different Black Silicon ARS, an effective medium criterion for the examined structures is derived that can also be used as a design rule for maximizing sample transmittance in a desired wavelength range. In addition, we show that the mechanical durability of the structures can be greatly enhanced by coating with hard dielectric materials like diamond-like carbon (DLC), hence enabling practical applications.
Finally, the distinct advantages of statistical Black Silicon ARS over conventional AR layer stacks are discussed: simple applicability to topological substrates, absence of thermal stress and cost-effectiveness.
Mask-aligner (MA) lithography is a well-known method for the fabrication of micrometer sized structures on a substrate
with a diameter up to 300 mm. In spite of a theoretical resolution below 200 nm, the minimum printable feature sized
remained above 1μm due to diffraction effects and limit its utilization to advanced packaging, or MEMS fabrication.
Recently, developments in the illumination system and mechanical parts (known as AMALTIH for Advanced MA
LITHography) as well as mask design, have permitted to used diffractive based photo-mask, and then reach the
resolution limit mentioned above. This opens the possibility to fabricate smaller structures, usually accessible only by ebeam
lithography. We propose here to demonstrate a fast and robust fabrication method of large area plasmonic absorber
structures based on 2D sub-micrometric (350 nm period) nano-needles in a transparent polymer on a glass substrate and
coated with a 50 nm thick gold layer. The interaction of the incoming light with metallic structured surface leads to the
small total reflections of the 0th order below 5 %, over a large spectral band (460-660 nm) and a large set of incidence
angles with TE and TM polarizations. Those results demonstrate that our fabrication process is a step toward the
implementation of plasmonic based effect structures for a wide range of application.
Diffractive mask-aligner lithography is capable to print structures that have a sub-500-nanometer resolution by using non-contact mode. This requires the use of specially designed phase-masks and dedicated illumination conditions in the Mask-Aligner to obtain the optimal exposure conditions, a spectral filter and a polarizer needs to be placed in the beam path. We introduce here mask designs that includes a polarizer on the top side of a photo-mask and a diffractive element on the bottom one. This enables printing of high resolution structures of arbitrary orientation by using a classical mask-aligner in proximity exposure mode.
In this contribution we discuss configurations of stacked silicon high contrast gratings (HCGs) which are separated by a thin silicon dioxide grating such that they are coupled via their near-fields. For a given configuration altering incidence angle allows to either benefit from the optical performance of two separated HCGs or one single grating with enhanced thickness. This effect can serve to realize filters with tailored optical properties and for diffractive cavity couplers. We experimentally demonstrate the coupling effect on a stack of two HCGs for a wavelength of 1550nm and transverse-magnetic polarization. The investigated structure provides a nearly angular independent high reflectance.
Experiments in the field of high-precision optical metrology are crucially limited by thermal noise of the optical components such as mirrors or beam splitters. Amorphous coatings stacks are found to be a main source for these thermal fluctuations. In this contribution we present approaches to realize coating free optical components based on resonant high contrast gratings (HCGs) made of crystalline silicon. It is shown that beside classical cavity mirrors the concept of HCGs can also be used for reflective cavity couplers. We compare the advantages and challenges of these HCG reflectors with distributed Bragg reflectors made of crystalline coatings for applications in optical metrology.
We present novel filter elements with an asymmetric angle dependent transmission based on high-contrast gratings.
Asymmetric means a different efficiency for positive and negative incidence angles. Our approach provides the realization of asymmetric direction selective filters by using blaze-like grating structures combined with subwavelength
high contrast gratings respectively grating periods in the resonance domain. We also discuss the influence of the effective medium theory on the transmission function depending on the angle of the incident light. For realization of those high contrast gratings Silicon is chosen as material with high refractive index and adequate compatibility with semiconductor fabrication.
We report on recent theoretical and experimental results on diffractive-refractive transmission lenses as promising
candidates for next-generation X-ray telescopes with an ultra-high angular resolution. This feature is especially
analyzed for elementary refractive, diffractive and dispersion-corrected hybrid lenses and a fundamental limit to
the angular resolution for optics of the latter type is identified. An inherent flexibility in adjusting the image
sharpness is obtained from the segmentation of an aperture into small partitions, whose degree of coherence can
be controlled continuously. Successfully realized monolithic phase zone plates from a spin-coated polymer show
the way to the practical implementation of large-scale objectives. Based on these concepts, an arrangement for
enhanced and variable high-throughput imaging around the Fe-Kα line at 6.4 keV is finally proposed.
The challenge of future solar cell technologies is the combination of highly efficient cell concepts and low cost fabrication
processes. A promising concept for high efficiencies is the usage of nanostructured silicon, so-called black silicon.
Due to its unique surface geometry the optical path of the incoming light through the silicon substrate is enhanced to
nearly perfect light trapping.
Combined with the semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) solar cell concept it is possible to fabricate a low cost
device by using conventional sputtering technologies. Therefore, a thin insulator is coated on the nanostructured silicon
surface, followed by the deposition of a transparent conductive oxide (TCO), e.g. indium tin oxide (ITO) or aluminum
doped zinc oxide (AZO). In such systems the TCO induces a heterojunction, hence, high temperature diffusion processes
are not necessary.
The optical and geometrical properties of different nanostructured silicon surfaces will be presented. Furthermore, the
influence of the used TCO materials will be discussed and the solar cell performance under AM1.5G illumination of
unstructured and structured SIS devices is shown.
We present experimental results and rigorous numerical simulations on the optical properties of Black Silicon surfaces
and their implications for solar cell applications. The Black Silicon is fabricated by reactive ion etching of crystalline
silicon with SF6 and O2. This produces a surface consisting of sharp randomly distributed needle like features with a
characteristic lateral spacing of about a few hundreds of nanometers and a wide range of aspect ratios depending on the
process parameters. Due to the very low reflectance over a broad spectral range and a pronounced light trapping effect at
the silicon absorption edge such Black Silicon surface textures are beneficial for photon management in photovoltaic
applications. We demonstrate that those light trapping properties prevail upon functionalization of the Black Silicon with
dielectric coatings, necessary to construct a photovoltaic system. The experimental investigations are accompanied by
rigorous numerical simulations based on three dimensional models of the Black Silicon structures. Those simulations
allow insights into the light trapping mechanism and the influence of the substrate thickness onto the optical performance
of the Black Silicon. Finally we use an analytical solar cell model to relate the optical properties of Black Silicon to the
maximum photo current and solar cell efficiency in dependence of the solar cell thickness. The results are compared to
standard light trapping schemes and implications especially for thin solar cells are discussed.
In this work we present a wire grid polarizer with a working range down to 300 nm based on an amorphous silicon
grating. For the fabrication of gratings with periods of 120 nm and 140 nm electron beam lithography and ICP
etching were used. Furthermore the influence of the grating period on the optical properties was investigated.
The measured maximum value of the extinction ratio for a period of 140 nm and 120 nm is 177 at a wavelength
of 418 nm and 324 at a wavelength of 394 nm, respectively.
We report on novel concepts for reflective diffractive elements based on high-contrast gratings. To demonstrate
the possibilities for such devices reflective cavity couplers with three output ports are investigated. A diffracting
period is superposed to a highly reflective subwavelength grating in order to realize diffractive elements. This
superposition can be realized with a periodic depth, fill factor or period modulation of the reflector. Further, to
limit the total transmission of the device it is necessary to enhance its angular tolerance. We discuss different
approaches in order to realize this increased reflectivity in broad range of the angular spectrum. The contribution
focuses on the material combination silicon-silica, but the presented concepts also hold for other material
combinations with large index contrast and even for monolithic silicon structures.
We report on experimental etching techniques to trim the efficiency of high-contrast gratings based on silicon and
silica. We show that the resonance wavelength and hence the reflectivity can be tuned by means of selectively
etching the silica grating. In order to realize a well-defined adjustment of the grating profiles the etching rates of
silica layers with hydrofluoric acid were determined. Coatings deposited by different techniques such as electron-beam
evaporation, ion plating and thermal oxidation are compared and the influence of structuration on the
etching is investigated, as well. This work basically helps to improve the maximum reflectivity that can be
realized with these high-contrast reflectors and tune the resonance to a required wavelength.
We introduce concepts for direction selective transmission filters based on dielectric high-contrast gratings. The
devices act as angular bandpass filters at an incidence angle of 45° with a total transmission of 68% and a full
width at half maximum of 20°. Since the filters are based on a material combination of silicon and silicon dioxide
they provide an excellent compatibility to well established fabrication processes in semiconductor industry. The
results of measurements on fabricated samples are presented and the performance of the components is compared
to that of metallic gratings. It is found that the latter can basically provide similar filter properties, however the
feasible transmission efficiency is significantly lower than for the dielectric gratings. The presented configurations
are applicable in the field of sensors and detectors.
Metallic inclusions in layered structures can have noticeable effects onto scattering and absorption due to the coupling of
the external electromagnetic field and local charge oscillations. These effects are strongly related to both the geometry of
the individual particle as well as to the array structure. Having in mind the efficiency improvement of silicon solar cells
due to plasmonic effects, we report on the modeling and the fabrication of periodic arrays of metallic nanoparticles on
planar substrates. Different characterization techniques as atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron
microscope (SEM) and optical measurements are applied which provide particular information with respect to the
fabricated structures, each. Special emphasis is placed on the clarification of the dominant features of the optical
characterization by detailed numerical analysis. This allows identifying significant modes of the planar geometry which
is complemented by the nanostructures, whose interplay with the radiation field does establish changes of the absorption
in the silicon layer, finally. These findings may be helpful for optimization and clarification of specific details of
technology, later on.
We present results of rigorous optical modeling of reactive ion etched crystalline silicon surfaces, so called Black Silicon,
for different etching parameters and compare them to experimental data. Reactive ion etching of crystalline silicon
with SF6 and O2 can produce a surface consisting of sharp randomly distributed needle like features with a characteristic
lateral spacing of about a few hundreds of nanometers and a wide range of aspect ratios depending on the process parameters.
Due to the very low reflectance over a broad spectral range such surface textures can be beneficial for photon
management in photovoltaic applications. To gain a detailed understanding of the optical properties of Black Silicon
surfaces we recovered the full three dimensional geometry of differently etched samples. With these data we calculated
the optical response using the finite differences time domain method. From the calculations we will give insight into the
magnitude of resonant phenomena within the Black Silicon and the resulting near field enhancement. Furthermore we
will present carrier generation profiles which quantify the effect of absorption enhancement due to the nanostructured
surface. We also investigate the angular forward scattering distribution into the silicon substrate and the resulting path
length enhancement which is crucial for the near band edge absorption especially in thin solar cells.
Due to their electrical conductivity and transparency in the visible spectral range, transparent conductive oxides
(TCOs) are suitable as transparent front electrodes for multiple cell concepts. One promising device is a
semiconductor-insulator-semiconductor (SIS) solar cell, in which the TCO induces the pn juntion and acts as a
transparent electrode at the same time. Due to its work function, the thin TCO layer leads to the inversion of the
subsurface region. The high refractive index of transparent conductive oxides enables antireflection coating in a
limited spectral range. One approach to achieve broadband antireflection properties with effective light coupling
into the absorber is a nanostructured silicon interface. For large area modifications of silicon, the inductive
coupled plasma (ICP) etching technology is a possible technique.
The combination of the nanostructured surface and the SIS system leads to a novel solar cell concept with
promising properties and a simple production process. In our study, we used pulsed dc magnetron sputtering
for the deposition of thin ITO films on p-doped unstructured and ICP-structured silicon substrates. Optical
and structural properties have been analyzed. Furthermore, the solar cell performance of the first devices under
AM1.5G illumination will be shown and discussed.
We developed a fabrication process for microoptical elements with continuous profiles. In contrast to gray tone lithography with the cost intensive HEBS-glass or direct writing by laser or electron beam and the closely connected expensive equipment, the presented technique allows a low budget fabrication of continuous profiles with smooth surfaces. We use conventional binary photolithography with standard DNQ-Novolak based photoresist, simple smoothing techniques and proportional transfer by dry etching. All variations of the procedure are based on the local depth control with the local filling factor of a periodic pattern in a binary photomask. The filling factor of the mask defines the resist volume, which corresponds to an effective layer thickness. With the aid of smoothing techniques after development, the effective resist layer thickness is transformed to the real local profile thickness. Thus, continuous change of the filling factor in the periodic mask pattern results in a smooth height profile. Furthermore, it is possible to fabricate continuous height profiles with just one lithographic step if the mask pattern can not be resolved by the exposure-system. This can be achieved by the use of smaller periods or by increasing the gap between mask and substrate. The need of further surface smoothing depends on the smoothness demands. With the help of continuous resist profiles, fabricated by smoothing of binary resist patterns and also by using non-resolvable masks, combined with further binary structuring after the proportional transfer, three dimensional waveguide taper for low loss fiber-waveguide coupling via mode matching were successfully manufactured.
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