Integration of near-field probes and photonic crystal nanocavities for precise and low-loss resonance control

Abstract

Research interest for silicon nanophotonics is a topic of heavy interest currently due to the requirements for high density communications of integrated devices with small footprints in the semiconductor industry. Silicon photonic crystals (PhC) are nanoscale subwavelength periodic structures that possess the capability to induce strong interaction between light and matter. PhC nanocavities utilizes the photonic bandgap effect to trap certain frequencies of light within a small confined region for a diverse range of applications such as enhancement and suppression of spontaneous emission, efficient and compact lasers, add/drop multiplexers, optical filters and sensing etc. In this paper, we describe a mechanically-perturbative near-field probe with a special design shape to achieve low-loss and precise resonance control of PhC nanocavities. One-dimensional (1D) PhC are chosen for our study due to the ease of integrating with low-loss SOI waveguide technology and easy integration with nanomechanical structures. Sub-micron microelectromechanical systems (MEMS/NEMS) technology is introduced as an ideal integration platform with such near-field probe designs due to its capabilities to accurately control fine displacements without the need of bulky equipment such as atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning near field microscope (SNOM) or highly sensitive piezo-controlled micromanipulator stages. We propose that such near-field probe designs are capable of achieving large resonance spectral shift of up to few nm with high re-configurability, highly accurate actuation displacements, low power consumption, and portability. In this work, we propose an approach utilizing numerical methods to study and characterize the electromagnetic interaction between PhC nanocavities and nanomechanically displaced near-field nano-probes. © 2011 Copyright Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE).