Heterogeneous lithium niobate photonics on silicon substrates

Abstract

A platform for the realization of tightly-confined lithium niobate photonic devices and circuits on silicon substrates is reported based on wafer bonding and selective oxidation of refractory metals. The heterogeneous photonic platform is employed to demonstrate high-performance lithium niobate microring optical resonators and Mach-Zehnder optical modulators. A quality factor of ~7.2 × 10⁴ is measured in the microresonators, and a half-wave voltage-length product of 4 V.cm and an extinction ratio of 20 dB is measured in the modulators.