First order Bragg grating filters in silicon on insulator waveguides

The subject of this project is the design; analysis, fabrication and characterisation of first order Bragg Grating optical filters in Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) planar waveguides. It is envisaged that this work will result in the possibility of Bragg Grating filters for use in Silicon Photonics. It is the purpose of the work to create as far as is possible flat surface waveguides so as to facilitate Thermo-Optic tuning and also the incorporation into rib-waveguide Silicon Photonics. The spectral response of the shallow Bragg Gratings was modelled using Coupled Mode Theory (CMT) by way of RSoft Gratingmod TM. Also the effect of having a Bragg Grating with alternate layers of refractive index of 1.5 and 3.5 was simulated in order to verify that Silica and Silicon layered Bragg Gratings could be viable. A series of Bragg Gratings were patterned on 1.5 micron SOI at Philips in Eindhoven, Holland to investigate the variation of grating parameters with a) the period of the gratings b) the mark to space ratio of the gratings and c) the length of the region converted to Bragg Gratings (i.e. the number of grating period repetitions). One set of gratings were thermally oxidised at Philips in Eindhoven and another set were ion implanted with Oxygen ions at the Ion Beam Facility, University of Surrey, England. The gratings were tested and found to give transmission minima at approximately 1540 nanometres and both methods of creating flat surfaces were found to give similar minima. Atomic Force Microscopy was applied to the grating area of the as-implanted samples in the Advanced Technology Institute, University of Surrey, which were found to have surface undulations in the order of 60 nanometres.