Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-102). / by José Benavides. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1997. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 101-105). / by James S. Foresi. / Ph.D.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2009. / Cataloged from PDF version of thesis. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 199-213). / The intrinsic advantages of small footprint, low fabrication cost and immunity to electromagnetic interference make planar photonic device technologies a promising solution to a number of key technical challenges. The examples include high-speed telecommunication, on-chip optical interconnect, imaging and photovoltaics. Another important area planar photonic technologies may penetrate into is biochemical sensing. High precision optical metrology tools can be applied to detect optical property changes associated with the presence of biological or chemical molecules, leading to sensitive, rapid detection of these molecular species. In this thesis, we focus on the development of novel photonic materials and devices that address the emerging need in the field of biochemical sensing. Chalcogenide glasses have been identified as the material of choice for sensing due to their wide infrared transparency window; on the device side, we have fabricated optical resonator devices that dramatically amplify the photon-molecule interactions towards highly sensitive detection. We have developed and optimized a lift-off patterning technique for Si-CMOS backend compatible fabrication of high-index-contrast (HIC) chalcogenide glass devices. A thermal reflow technique further removes the sidewall roughness resulting from the patterning process and is shown to effectively reduce the scattering loss in chalcogenide glass waveguides. Using the lift-off technology, we have demonstrated the first microring and micro-disk resonators in chalcogenide glasses, with a record loaded cavity quality factor (Q-factor) exceeding 2 x 105. / (cont.) We have shown that these high-Q chalcogenide glass resonators can serve as highly sensitive refractometry sensors with a refractive index detection limit down to 8 x 107. This high sensitivity agrees with our theoretical analysis, which predicts one to two orders of magnitude performance improvement over surface plasmonic resonance (SPR) sensors. The optofluidic resonator devices are leveraged to detect surface binding of biological molecules. Label-free detection of proteins at clinically relevant concentrations (< 1 ng/mL) has been experimentally verified. We have also demonstrated cavity enhanced absorption spectroscopy near the 1500 nm infrared wavelength. By taking advantage of the strong optical resonance enhancement, we achieved 3-fold chemical sensing sensitivity improvement and 40-fold device physical size reduction simultaneously compared to evanescent waveguide sensors, which clearly demonstrates the competitive advantage of using resonators for cavity enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy. Lastly, we have developed a novel precision metrology technique, resonant cavity refractometry, for glass property investigation. It leverages the extreme sensitivity of optical resonators to optical property change of their constituent materials, to accurate extract property and micro-structural evolution information of glass materials. We apply this technique to characterize photosensitive index change and two photon absorption in chalcogenide glasses with very high accuracy. / (cont.) We also report the first experimental observation of cavity enhanced photosensitivity of As2S3 glass to 1550 nm telecommunication wavelength light, an important design consideration for nonlinear optical devices using chalcogenide glasses*. / by Juejun Hu. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1999. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Emiliano Cecchetti. / S.M.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, February 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves [162]-166). / Future integrated optical circuits will hold, on a single chip, several optical components that communicate via high index contrast waveguides. Silicon nitride (SixNy) and silicon oxynitride (SixOyNz) waveguides with silicon oxide cladding can be used to guide light on a chip because they have small dimensions, low scattering loss, and can be fabricated with silicon-based technology. With more components on a chip, we need to develop novel technologies to seamlessly route the optical signal from one waveguide to multiple waveguides simultaneously, or from the optical fiber to a waveguide. This thesis presents the design and fabrication of two such devices. The first is a compact multimode interference coupler, also called multi-mode interferometer (MMI), which can equally distribute the optical power from one input waveguide to multiple output waveguides. The prototypes were fabricated for silicon-rich SixNy waveguides with 1 input and 4 or 8 output ports. The second device is a compact fiber-to-waveguide coupler, which can efficiently confine the light from an optical fiber to a sub-micron waveguide. / (cont.) The prototypes were fabricated for SixOyNz waveguide of index 1.70. The advantages of these couplers are their very compact size, high efficiencies, and their fabrication process can be adapted by mainstream silicon-based manufacturing technology. In addition, their designs are very robust and can be applied for efficient coupling into any high index contrast dielectric waveguide. / by Victor T. Nguyen. / Ph.D.

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 2006. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 102-103). / The synergies associated with integrating Si-based CMOS ICs and III-V-material-based light-emitting devices are very exciting and such integration has been an active area of research and development for quite some time now. SiGe virtual substrate technology presents one way to integrate these materials. A more practical approach to monolithic integration based on the SiGe virtual substrate technology was followed in this work which involves wafer bonding and hydrogen-induced exfoliation to transfer a thin layer of device-quality silicon on top of the SiGe graded buffers to produce Silicon on Lattice Engineered Substrate (SOLES). SOLES wafers are suitable for the practical fabrication of SOI CMOS circuits and III-V-based photonic devices on a common silicon substrate. A novel monolithic CMOS compatible AlGaInP visible LED array on the SOLES platform was developed, fabricated and demonstrated in this work. The prototype array is an important breakthrough in the realization of the ultimate objective - monolithically integrated optical interconnects in high speed digital systems. / by Kamesh Chilukuri. / S.M.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1985. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE / Vita. / Bibliography: leaves 177-180. / by Robert A. Frank. / M.S.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1984. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Vita. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Thomas George Stratton. / Ph.D.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1983. / MICROFICHE COPY AVAILABLE IN ARCHIVES AND SCIENCE. / Includes bibliographical references. / by Bertrand Journet. / M.S.

Thesis (M.S.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Materials Science and Engineering, 1995. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 24-25). / by Mayank T. Bulsara. / M.S.