Broadband enhancement of light emission in silicon slot waveguides

Abstract

Abstract:We investigate the light emission properties of electrical dipole emitters inside 2-dimensional (2D) and 3-dimensional (3D) silicon slot waveguides and evaluate the spontaneous emission enhancement (F p ) and waveguide coupling ratio (β). Under realistic conditions, we find that greater than 10-fold enhancement in F p can be achieved, together with a β as large as 0.95. In contrast to the case of high Q optical resonators, such performance enhancements are obtained over a broad wavelength region, which can cover the entire emission spectrum of popular optical dopants such as Er. The enhanced luminescence efficiency and the strong coupling into a limited set of well-defined waveguide modes enables a new class of power-efficient, CMOS-compatible, waveguide-based light sources. 2009 Optical Society of America

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