Abstract
An atomic force microscope is used to directly measure the sidewall
roughness of silicon carbide waveguides. In order to make the vertical walls
accessible, the chip containing the rib waveguides was fixed on a 15$^{\circ}$ steel
wedge and loaded onto an AFM scanner stage; this fitting ensures enough probe
contact area on one of the sidewalls. The data was processed using a fully
automated algorithm to extract the roughness in the direction of light propagation.
This technique allows the investigation of devices at chip level without damaging
the structures. The method was calibrated using a well-known smoothing process
based on thermal oxidation of silicon waveguides to achieve low transmission
loss and applied to PECVD silicon carbide waveguides. A very low loss behavior
at 1.3 $\mu$m
(${<}1$ dB/cm)
is reported.
© 2011 IEEE
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