Abstract

Si/SiO₂ waveguides are applicable to modem silicon nano-photonics and are compatible with Si electronics for compact integration. However, for the submicron-scale waveguides, surface rouglmess sensitively affects the scattering loss and then causes an impediment to use. Many efforts are devoted to reducing the scattering loss by minimizing the rouglmess of the sidewalls, including hydrogen annealing, dry oxidation, and wet chemical etching. These methods, however, have several drawbacks. The two methods using high temperature have concerns on the thermal budgets and the capability of oxidation method to reduce a large rouglmess is limited.

© 2007 IEEE