Low loss Ge-on-Si waveguides operating in the 8-14 um atmospheric transmission window

Germanium-on-silicon waveguides were modeled, fabricated and characterized at wavelengths ranging from 7.5 to 11 mu m. Measured waveguide losses are below 5 dB/cm for both TE and TM polarization and reach values of similar to 1 dB/cm for >= 10 mu m wavelengths for the TE polarization. This work demonstrates experimentally for the first time that Ge-on-Si is a viable waveguide platform for sensing in the molecular fingerprint spectral region. Detailed modeling and analysis is presented to identify the various loss contributions, showing that with practical techniques losses below 1 dB/cm could be achieved across the full measurement range. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.