ABSTRACT
An essential component for optical interconnects on Si-based CMOS chips is a light guide. Both single crystalline and hydrogenated amorphous Si waveguides have been developed [4-8]. While the former approach leads to reasonably low optical loss, the latter o›ers additional bene„ts in terms of lower cost and low-temperature processing. e propagation loss in Si arises primarily from waveguide surface roughness and intrinsic material absorption. Due to the very large index contrast between the core and cladding, Si nanophotonic rib waveguides can provide
strong subwavelength optical con„nement. With the development of microfabrication and SOI technologies, single crystalline Si waveguides can now exhibit very low optical loss (≤0.5 dB/cm) in the wavelength range of 1.3-1.55 µm [4].
