Imprinted silicon-based nanophotonics

We demonstrate and optically characterize silicon-on-insulator based nanophotonic devices fabricated by nanoimprint lithography. In our demonstration, we have realized ordinary and topology-optimized photonic crystal waveguide structures. The topology-optimized structures require lateral pattern definition on a sub 30-nm scale in combination with a deep vertical silicon etch of the order of ~300 nm. The nanoimprint method offers a cost-efficient parallel fabrication process with state-of-the-art replication fidelity, comparable to direct electron beam writing.