Light emission and enhanced nonlinearity in nanophotonic waveguide circuits by III-V/silicon-on-insulator heterogeneous integration

The heterogeneous integration of a III-V thin film on top of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) optical waveguide circuit by means of adhesive divinylsiloxane-benzocyclobutene (DVS-BCB) die-to-wafer bonding is demonstrated, thereby achieving light emission and enhanced nonlinearity in ultracompact SOI cavities. This approach requires ultrathin DVS-BCB bonding layers to allow the highly confined optical mode to overlap with the bonded III-V film. The transfer of sub-100-nm III-V layers using a 65 nm DVS-BCB bonding layer onto SOI racetrack resonator structures is demonstrated. Spontaneous emission coupled to a SOI bus waveguide, spectrally centered around the resonator resonances, is observed by optically pumping the III-V layer. Strong carrier-induced nonlinearities are observed in the transmission characteristics of the III-V/SOI resonator structure. The all-optical control of an optical signal in these III-V/SOI resonators is demonstrated. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.