Eaat2355 Full
Eaat2355 Full
Eaat2355 Full
Vm ¼
∫eE dV
2
ð1Þ
polarization direction. Slotted photonic crystal cavities reduce the Vm to
~0.01 (l/nair)3, almost two orders of magnitude lower than traditional
maxðeE2 Þ photonic crystal cavities (24, 25). However, it is difficult to achieve deeper
subwavelength confinement via a slot configuration alone. In addition,
Simultaneously achieving high confinement in both categories because slotted photonic structures inherently confine cavity modes with-
has been a long-time pursuit in nanophotonics research and holds in a low-index region, they are not suitable for applications requiring
the promise for revolutionary advances in generating, modulating, strong light-matter interaction in high-index materials, such as silicon
and detecting light, including higher-efficiency light sources (1–4) or many highly nonlinear optical materials.
and solar cells (5–8), as well as faster and lower power consumption While spatial localization of photons typically occurs due to a single
optical switches and modulators (9–13). Plasmonic and metal-based physical mechanism, such as total internal reflection in waveguides and
metamaterial structures are capable of concentrating light into deep- photonic bandgap confinement in photonic crystals, it is apparent
subwavelength volumes [that is, mode volume = Vm ~ 10−3 (l/nair)3] by from previous work that a second level of spatial localization is possi-
accessing a surface plasmon resonance (6, 14, 15). However, resistive ble (6, 15, 24–26). In the case of slotted photonic crystal waveguides,
heating losses lead to poor temporal confinement (that is, quality light is first confined in the dielectric mode by the photonic bandgap
factor = Q ~ 10) and prohibit the realization of practical devices that effect such that light is spatially localized in the dielectric region be-
require propagation of energy (16). Recent work replacing metals with tween the lattice holes. Then, introduction of an air slot that cuts
all-dielectric materials has led to encouraging progress for enhanced through the dielectric region further localizes the light within this
spatial light localization through scattering in high-index dielectric air slot due to electromagnetic boundary conditions. Our previously
nanoparticles, but the lack of an intrinsic confinement mechanism reported theoretical study suggests that this two-step light confine-
within these dielectric structures has prevented light concentration on ment effect can be best exploited to achieve low mode volume by using
par with plasmonics. Furthermore, the scattering mechanism in these subwavelength modifications of the photonic crystal lattice holes rather
than the dielectric region between lattice holes (26). In that study, light is
1
first confined in the air mode by the photonic bandgap effect such that
Department of Physics and Astronomy, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
37235, USA. 2IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center, 1101 Kitchawan Road, York-
light is spatially localized inside the lattice air holes. Then, a bowtie-
town Heights, NY 10598, USA. 3Laboratoire de Nanotechnologie et d’Instrumentation shaped subwavelength dielectric inclusion added to the lattice holes
Optique, Institut Charles Delaunay CNRS-UMR 6281, Université de Technologie de enables redistribution of the optical mode to the tips of the bowtie as
Troyes, Troyes 10004, France. 4Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer a result of electromagnetic boundary conditions. The two-step light lo-
Science, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, USA.
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected] (S.H.); sharon.weiss@vanderbilt. calization process in photonic crystals preserves the high-Q nature of
edu (S.M.W.) the photonic crystal cavity. A later theoretical study also found that a
bowtie-shaped subwavelength dielectric inclusion in the center of a and then further localized to the tips of the dielectric bowtie within the
slotted photonic crystal nanobeam with a 1-nm air gap between the air hole region. The band diagram in Fig. 2B shows that the air mode
bowtie tips enables extremely high Q/Vm values (27). Here, we intro- of the bowtie photonic crystal cavity unit cell lies within the mode
duce design improvements to bowtie-shaped photonic crystal unit cells gap of the mirror unit cells, providing the requisite confinement
that enable additional mode confinement in the out-of-plane direction for the cavity mode. The wavelength of the cavity air mode is ap-
accompanied by a commensurate increase in the peak electric field proximately 1570 nm at the band edge [kx = 0.5(2p/a)]. As is the case
strength, and we experimentally demonstrate a bowtie photonic crystal for all one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal cavities, the Q factor of
cavity with a loaded Q factor on the order of 105 and record deep- the bowtie photonic crystal cavity is governed in large part by the
subwavelength mode confinement in silicon [Vm ~ 10−3 (l/nSi)3] band gap tapering from the cavity to mirror unit cells. We choose to
that is verified by optical near-field measurements. This extreme transition between the center and mirror unit cells in a quadratic fash-
light concentration is on par with plasmonic resonators, yet the low-loss ion, similar to the approach followed in other high-Q photonic crystal
dielectric material allows a concurrent ultrahigh Q factor (26). designs (21–23).
Figure 2 (C and D) shows the top and side view profiles of the
optical mode in the center cavity unit cell, and the electric energy
RESULTS (proportional to ɛE2) across the bowtie photonic crystal cavity is shown
Bowtie photonic crystal cavity design in Fig. 2 (E and F) and fig. S2 (A and B). We note that, because the
To achieve improved out-of-plane modal confinement in the bowtie dimensions of the bowtie photonic crystal are the same for all
unit cell compared to our previous design of a bowtie photonic crystal, simulations, the electric energy is directly proportional to electric
Fig. 3. Transmission of fabricated bowtie photonic crystal. (A) SEM image of the bowtie photonic crystal. (B) Zoomed-in image of a single unit cell in the red box in
(A). (C) Tilted SEM image of an undercut bowtie photonic crystal revealing the out-of-plane profile. (D) Measured transmission spectrum. The fundamental mode has Q ~ 100,000
at l = 1578.85 nm. The second-order and third-order peaks are located at 1562.20 and 1546.96 nm, with Q factors of 21,800 and 5156, respectively. a.u., arbitrary units.
that allow light to be coupled directly into the cavity instead of first field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) to probe the resonance
passing through the mirror unit cells (for example, side coupling or mode. Considering the practical constraints of the NSOM system,
evanescent coupling from a fiber). the structure shown in Fig. 3 is not ideal for NSOM measurements
due to the narrow resonance linewidth (~15 pm) and low transmission
Near-field measurements intensity (~0.04). Accordingly, a bowtie photonic crystal is designed
To experimentally verify the simulated optical field distribution of and fabricated with reduced mirror confinement (five mirror unit cells
the bowtie photonic crystal resonators, we used apertureless near- on each side of the cavity) to increase both the linewidth (~50 pm)
and transmission intensity (~0.2), as shown in fig. S4. Because the measured optical near-field mapping of the bowtie photonic crystal
mode is tightly confined in the cavity, the mode volume is not changed cavity, respectively. The shape of the bowties shown in Fig. 4B is
by reducing the number of mirror unit cells (Vm = 6.09 × 10−4 mm3 distorted due to the resolution limit of the AFM mode of the NSOM
for five mirror unit cells). Consequently, conclusions drawn from when measuring bowtie features that reside below the surface of the
NSOM measurements on the five-mirror unit cell bowtie photonic sample using a tapping mode above the surface of the sample. The
crystal are also applicable to the higher Q cavities with additional SEM image shown in the inset of Fig. 4B reveals the actual shape of
mirror unit cells. The NSOM operates in a tapping mode in which one of the bowtie unit cells in this sample. The measured electric
the tip oscillates from 0 to 30 nm above the sample surface. There- energy (Fig. 4C) is confined at the bowtie tips, in agreement with
fore, the near field measured by the NSOM does not directly cor- the simulated electric energy (Fig. 4A) distribution in the cavity.
respond to the calculated mode volume within the bowtie (Fig. 2E). Figure 4 (D and E) shows the measured electric energy profiles
To correlate experiment and simulation, we simulate the electric along x and y slices of the central unit cell. We identify the silicon
energy localization in the central unit cell of bowtie photonic crystal region as the shaded area in Fig. 4 (D and E), based on AFM mea-
at 15 nm above the silicon surface as an estimate of the expected av- surements (Fig. 4, D and E, dotted line). The simulated electric
erage scattering field that can be detected by the NSOM (Fig. 4A). The energy profiles are shown by the blue curves in Fig. 4 (D and E).
calculated size of the electric energy localization, which is esti- The NSOM-measured profile (red markers) along the y slice through
mated by the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of the electric the center of the cavity shows a sharp tip of the field at the bowtie
energy distribution in the unit cell, linearly increases from the center, indicating a concentrated electric energy. The size is estimated
center of the silicon slab (fig. S5) and is estimated to be ~183 nm to be ~175 nm by considering the FWHM of the electric energy
Fig. 4. Analysis of spatial confinement via NSOM measurements. (A) Schematic of bowtie photonic crystal cavity with overlay of simulated electric energy 15 nm
above the silicon surface, where the NSOM measures the scattered field. (B) AFM measurement and (C) corresponding electric energy distribution, as measured by
NSOM. The inset in (B) shows a higher-resolution SEM image of one of the bowtie unit cells from the measured cavity. (D and E) Simulated and NSOM-measured near-
field profile along the y direction and x direction, respectively, along with superimposed AFM line scan.
the discrepancy between the experimental and simulation results to a Photonic crystal design
combination of the influence of the NSOM tip itself on the electric The photonic crystal tapering follows the quadratic tapering
energy distribution and to the fact that NSOM preferably detects the
Ez signal, while the photonic crystal is designed for transverse electric 2 !
(TE)–polarized light (that is, mainly Ey component). We note that i
ri ¼ r0 1þ ð2Þ
the measured dimensions of the electric energy localization along m
the x and y directions of the bowtie photonic crystal are within a
factor of 2 of those of plasmonic resonators measured using NSOM
where
systems, as shown in table S2 (14, 30, 31). Moreover, although the
field distribution for the bowtie photonic crystal and plasmonic bow-
ties is different, the calculated mode volume, which, in the case of the Nc
m ¼ qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi ð3Þ
photonic crystal, spans multiple unit cells, is nearly identical.
r0 1
rm
DISCUSSION In the above expressions, r0 and rm are the radii of the cavity and mirror
Our work demonstrates that a dielectric resonator can serve as a unit cells, respectively, and Nc is the number of taper unit cells on each
promising alternative to lossy metals for extreme light concentration side of the cavity. In our design, r0 = 150 nm, rm = 187 nm, Nc = 20, and
and manipulation. Further optimization of the design and fabrication there are 10 mirror unit cells on each side of the cavity. Transmission
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SUPPLEMENTARY http://advances.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2018/08/20/4.8.eaat2355.DC1
MATERIALS
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