Optical Waveguides and Components Based on Porous Silicon

Abstract

Porous silicon offers many potential advantages for the realisation of optoelectronic circuits and systems. Foremost is the demonstration of photoluminescence [1] and solid state electroluminescent devices [2,3] which, when married with silicon based photodetectors and the well established electronic fabrication processes, has opened up the possibility for the realisation of monolithic all-silicon optoelectronic integrated circuits (OEIC’s). Another important feature is the ability to selectively produce insulating regions in CMOS circuitry by converting the porous silicon to silicon dioxide by oxidation. Oxidation of porous silicon also provides a new route to the realisation of the basic building block for all optoelectronic circuits - the optical waveguide.