Abstract
Advances in silicon photonics have resulted in rapidly increasing complexity in integrated circuits. New methods that allow the direct characterization of individual optical components in situ, without the need for additional fabrication steps or test structures, are desirable. Here, we present a device-level method for the characterization of photonic chips based on a highly localized modulation in the device using pulsed laser excitation. Optical pumping perturbs the refractive index of silicon, providing a spatially and temporally localized modulation in the transmitted light, enabling time- and frequency-resolved imaging. We demonstrate the versatility of this all-optical modulation technique in imaging and in the quantitative characterization of a range of properties of silicon photonic devices, from group indices in waveguides, to quality factors of a ring resonator, and to the mode structure of a multimode interference device. Ultrafast photomodulation spectroscopy provides important information on devices of complex design, and is easily applicable for testing at the device level.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Rent or buy this article
Prices vary by article type
from$1.95
to$39.95
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Soref, R. Silicon photonics: a review of recent literature. Silicon 2, 1–6 (2010).
Passaro, V. M. N. et al. Recent advances in integrated photonic sensors. Sensors 12, 15558–15598 (2012).
Jalali, B. & Fathpour, S. Silicon photonics. J. Lightwave Technol. 24, 4600–4614 (2006).
Yamada, K. et al. High-performance silicon photonics technology for telecommunications applications. Sci. Technol. Adv. Mater. 15, 024603 (2014).
Kuramochi et al. Large-scale integration of wavelength-addressable all-optical memories on a photonic crystal chip. Nature Photon. 8, 474–481 (2014).
Beaud, P. et al. Optical reflectometry with micrometer resolution for the investigation of integrated optical devices. IEEE J. Quant. Electron. 25, 755–759 (1989).
Youngquist, R. C., Carr, S. & Davies D. E. N. Optical coherence-domain reflectometry: a new optical evaluation technique. Opt. Lett. 12, 158–160 (1987).
Kohlhaas, A., Frömchen, C. & Brinkmeyer, E. High-resolution OCDR for testing integrated-optical waveguides: dispersion-corrupted experimental data corrected by a numerical algorithm. J. Lightwave Technol. 9, 1493–1502 (1991).
Glombitza, U. & Brinkmeyer, E. Coherent frequency-domain reflectometry for characterization of single-mode integrated-optical waveguides. J. Lightwave Technol. 11, 1377–1384 (1993).
Loncar, M. et al. Experimental and theoretical confirmation of Bloch-mode light propagation in planar photonic crystal waveguides. Appl. Phys. Lett. 80, 1689–1691 (2002).
McNab, S. J., Moll, N. & Vlasov, Y. A. Ultra-low loss photonic integrated circuit with membrane-type photonic crystal waveguides. Opt. Express 22, 2927–2939 (2003).
Hopman, W. C. L., Hoekstra, H. J. W. M., Dekker, D., Zhuang, L. & de Ridder, R. M. Far-field scattering microscopy applied to analysis of slow light, power enhancement, and delay times in uniform Bragg waveguide gratings. Opt. Express 15, 1851–1870 (2007).
García, P. D., Smolka, S., Stobbe, S. & Lodahl, P. Density of states controls Anderson localization in disordered photonic crystal waveguides. Phys. Rev. B 82, 165103 (2010).
Sapienza, R. et al. Deep-subwavelength imaging of the modal dispersion of light. Nature Mater. 11, 781–787 (2012).
Gersen, H. et al. Real-space observation of ultraslow light in photonic crystal waveguides. Phys. Rev. Lett. 94, 073903 (2005).
Engelen, R. J. P. et al. Ultrafast evolution of photonic eigenstates in k-space. Nature Phys. 3, 401–405 (2007).
Kramper, P. et al. Near-field visualization of light confinement in a photonic crystal microresonator. Opt. Lett. 29, 174–176 (2004).
Koenderink, A. F., Kafesaki, M., Buchler, B. C. & Sandoghdar, V. Controlling the resonance of a photonic crystal microcavity by a near-field probe. Phys. Rev. Lett. 95, 153904 (2005).
Märki, I., Salt, M. & Herzig, H. P. Tuning the resonance of a photonic crystal microcavity with an AFM probe. Opt. Express 14, 2969–2978 (2006).
Hopman, W. C. L. et al. Nano-mechanical tuning and imaging of a photonic crystal micro-cavity resonance. Opt. Express 14, 8745–8752 (2006).
Robinson, J. T., Preble, S. F. & Lipson, M. Imaging highly confined modes in sub-micron scale silicon waveguides using transmission-based near-field scanning optical microscopy. Opt. Express 14, 10588–10595 (2006).
Burresi, M. et al. Magnetic light–matter interactions in a photonic crystal nanocavity. Phys. Rev. Lett. 105, 123901 (2006).
Lalouat, L. et al. Near-field interactions between a subwavelength tip and a small-volume photonic-crystal nanocavity. Phys. Rev. B 76, 041102(R) (2007).
Burresi, M. et al. Probing the magnetic field of light at optical frequencies. Science 326, 550–553 (2009).
Gersen, H., Korterik, J. P., van Hulst, N. F. & Kuipers, L. Tracking ultrashort pulses through dispersive media: experiment and theory. Phys. Rev. E 68, 026604 (2003).
Beggs, D. M. et al. Ultrafast tunable optical delay line based on indirect photonic transitions. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 213901 (2012).
Beggs, D. M., Krauss, T. F., Kuipers, L. & Kampfrath, T. Ultrafast tilting of the dispersion of a photonic crystal and adiabatic spectral compression of light pulses. Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 033902 (2012).
Opheij, A. et al. Ultracompact (3 µm) silicon slow-light optical modulator. Sci. Rep. 3, 3546 (2013).
Liang, T. K. et al. Ultrafast nonlinear optical studies of silicon nanowaveguides. Opt. Express 13, 7298–7303 (2005).
Slavik, R., Park, Y., Kulishov, M., Morandotti, R. & Azana, J. Ultrafast all-optical differentiators. Opt. Express 14, 10699–10707 (2006).
Preble, S. F., Xu, Q., Schmidt, B. S. & Lipson M. Ultrafast all-optical modulation on a silicon chip. Opt. Lett. 30, 2891–2893 (2005).
Upham, J. et al. The capture, hold and forward release of an optical pulse from a dynamic photonic crystal nanocavity. Opt. Express 21, 3809–3817 (2013).
Kondo, K. et al. Ultrafast slow-light tuning beyond the carrier lifetime using photonic crystal waveguides. Phys. Rev. Lett. 110, 053902 (2013).
Motamedi, A. R., Nejadmalayeri, A. H., Khilo, A., Kärtner, F. X. & Ippen, E. P. Ultrafast nonlinear optical studies of silicon nanowaveguides. Opt. Express 20, 4085–4101 (2012).
Soref, R. A. & Bennett, B. R. Electrooptical effects in silicon. IEEE J. Quantum Electron. 23, 123–129 (1987).
Sokolowski-Tinten, K. & von der Linde, D. Generation of dense electron–hole plasmas in silicon. Phys. Rev. B 61, 2643–2650 (2000).
Sabbah, A. J. & Riffe, D. M. Femtosecond pump–probe reflectivity study of silicon carrier dynamics. Phys. Rev. B 66, 165217 (2002).
Kampfrath, T. et al. Ultrafast rerouting of light via slow modes in a nanophotonic directional coupler. Appl. Phys. Lett. 94, 241119 (2009).
Vlasov, Y. A., O'Boyle, M., Hamann, H. F. & McNab, S. J. Active control of slow light on a chip with photonic crystal waveguides. Nature 483, 65–69 (2005).
Letartre, X. et al. Group velocity and propagation losses measurement in a single-line photonic-crystal waveguide on InP membranes. Appl. Phys. Let. 79, 2312–2314 (2001).
Lee, M. W. et al. Characterizing photonic crystal waveguides with an expanded k-space evanescent coupling technique. Opt. Express 16, 13800–13808 (2008).
Notomi, M. et al. Extremely large group-velocity dispersion of line-defect waveguides in photonic crystal slabs. Phys. Rev. Lett. 87, 253902 (2001).
Finlayson, C. E. et al. Slow light and chromatic temporal dispersion in photonic crystal waveguides using femtosecond time of flight. Phys. Rev. E 73, 016619 (2006).
Dulkeith, E., Xia, F., Schares, L., Green, W. M. J. & Vlasov, Y. A. Group index and group velocity dispersion in silicon-on-insulator photonic wires. Opt. Express 14, 3853–3863 (2006).
Niehusmann, J. et al. Ultrahigh-quality-factor silicon-on-insulator microring resonator. Opt. Lett. 29, 2861–2863 (2004).
Baehr-Jones, T., Hochberg, M., Walker, C. & Scherer, A. High-Q optical resonators in silicon-on-insulator-based slot waveguides. Appl. Phys. Lett. 86, 081101 (2005).
Almeida, V. R., Barrios, C. A., Panepucci, R. R. & Lipson, M. All-optical control of light on a silicon chip. Nature 431, 1081–1084 (2004).
Passaro, V. M. N., Troia, B. & De Leonardis, B. A generalized approach for design of photonic gas sensors based on Vernier-effect in mid-IR. Sens. Actuat. B 168, 402–420 (2012).
Xu, Q. & Lipson, M. All-optical logic based on silicon micro-ring resonators. Opt. Express 15, 924–929 (2007).
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) (grant no. EP/J016918).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
R.B. and O.L.M. developed the UPMS set-up. R.B. performed the presented experiments. Data analysis and theoretical background was carried out by R.B. and O.L.M. B.M. was responsible for the laser system and contributed to the development of the set-up. D.J.T., F.Y.G., Y.H., G.Z.M. and G.T.R. designed and fabricated the characterized samples in Figs 2, 4 and 6. B.T., G.Z.M. and V.N.M.P. designed and fabricated the sample characterized in Fig. 5 and in Supplementary Fig. 1. R.B. and O.L.M wrote the paper in consultation with all authors.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The authors declare no competing financial interests.
Supplementary information
Supplementary information
Supplementary information (PDF 408 kb)
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Bruck, R., Mills, B., Troia, B. et al. Device-level characterization of the flow of light in integrated photonic circuits using ultrafast photomodulation spectroscopy. Nature Photon 9, 54–60 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.274
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nphoton.2014.274
This article is cited by
-
Ultrafast perturbation maps as a quantitative tool for testing of multi-port photonic devices
Nature Communications (2018)
-
Physical Unclonable Function based on a Multi-Mode Optical Waveguide
Scientific Reports (2018)
-
Characterization of coupling efficiency of silicon microring resonator using add-drop filter model
Optical Review (2018)
-
Free-carrier-induced soliton fission unveiled by in situ measurements in nanophotonic waveguides
Nature Communications (2016)
-
Device-level photonic testing
Nature Photonics (2015)