L’augmentation des flux d’information sur puce conduit l’électronique intégrée à un certain nombre de limitations, liées en particulier à la saturation des débits binaires transmissibles entre blocs et cœurs et au niveau excessif de puissance dissipée. Dans ce contexte, la photonique silicium a été proposée il y a plusieurs années comme une solution intéressante pour lever certains verrous. Ce domaine, qui a connu un intérêt marqué depuis, repose sur le développement de liens optiques sur puce, donc sur le développement de toutes les structures nécessaires pour l’émission, le guidage, la modulation, et la détection des signaux optiques. Au stade actuel, les progrès ont été spectaculaires mais des difficultés demeurent : d’une part, la puissance consommée par les composants optoélectroniques, en particulier de modulation, se situe toujours au-dessus des niveaux requis par les applications ; d’autre part, la taille des composants optiques intégrées classiques ne peut pas être miniaturisée en-dessous de la limite de diffraction (de l’ordre de 250nm dans les cas usuels de la photonique silicium, dans la fenêtre des longueurs d’onde télécoms λ=1,55µm), ce qui ne permet pas d’envisager une co-intégration poussée de l’optique avec l’électronique CMOS.Dans cette thèse, nous avons exploré les potentialités de l’utilisation de matériaux organiques non-linéaires au sein de structures métalliques pour la réalisation de guides d’ondes plasmoniques nonlinéaires. Les propriétés de la plasmonique autorisant la réalisation de structures sub-longueur d’onde à confinement extrême du champ électromagnétique, les composants qui en découlent sont caractérisés par un renforcement significatif des effets optiques non-linéaires et leur co-intégration avec l’électronique devient envisageable en terme de compacité et d’encombrement.Nous avons développé une approche basée sur la théorie des modes couplées applicable à des guides à pertes (absorption par les métaux) et, couplées à des calculs par éléments finis, nous l’avons appliquée à l’exploration des plusieurs effets. Deux types de guides ont été considérés, guides plasmoniques et guides plasmoniques hybrides. Les phénomènes de génération de seconde harmonique et de rectification optique (assistée électriquement ou pas) ont été étudiés principalement ; les compromis entre pertes de propagation (par absorption) et confinement du champ électromagnétique ont été explorés et l’ensemble a conduit à proposer plusieurs configurations caractérisées par des longueurs d’interaction de quelques dizaines de µm typiquement et des efficacités (de conversion de longueur d’onde, de rectification, etc) se situant au-delà de l’état de l’art actuel.Ces propositions théoriques ont été complétées par un volet expérimental, concrétisé par la fabrication de structures plasmoniques, et qui a permis de valider la possibilité d’une injection efficace de la lumière depuis une fibre optique vers des guides plasmoniques très sub-longueur d’onde. / With the rapid increasing bandwidth of data transmission and signal processing, integrated electronics encounters bottlenecks. Silicon photonics provides a low-cost solution to overcome some of these bottlenecks by introducing on-chip optical links. After a decade of development, silicon photonics is now the most active discipline and most promising platform within the field of integrated optics. However, in the process of further development, new stumbling blocks emerge, among which the fact that the size of photonic devices is limited by the diffraction limit, which results in a large mismatch between photonic and electronic components. Plasmonics seems to be an ideal solution to overcome this obstacle thanks to its ability to confine the optical field into nanoscales beyond the diffraction limit. Meanwhile, the localized strong field enhancement in plasmonic structures enhances interaction of light and matter, which is promising for nonlinear applications.In this dissertation, we combine the plasmonic and organic technologies onto the silicon photonics platform to create silicon plasmonic organic structures and investigate the nonlinear effects induced in them. Silicon plasmonic organic structures combine the advantages of silicon with ultra-compact performance of plasmonics and ultrafast property of organic materials that have great potentials in nonlinear integrated optics.A full-vectorial nonlinear coupled-wave equation model which is valid for lossy plasmonic waveguides is proposed and then utilized to analyze the nonlinear effects in silicon plasmonic waveguides. This dissertation addresses the use of two kinds of plasmonic waveguides, plasmonic slot waveguide (PSW) and hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPW), for nonlinear applications. Specifically, enhanced second harmonic generation, electro-optical /optical rectification effect in PSW and enhanced second harmonic generation in HPW and ring resonators are proposed. The mode phase matching technique is applied for the phase matching of the nonlinear processes. Based on the effective nonlinear effects within short distances, possible applications in optical signal processing such as phase regeneration, modulation and detection are envisaged.Design, fabrication and measurement of PSW are also provided. By spin-coating a commercial available second order nonlinear polymer, preliminary results regarding the nonlinear response of the PSW are investigated.

This thesis presents a novel method of modulating silicon photonic circuits using 3D printed microfluidic devices. The fluids that pass through the microfluidic device interact directly with the silicon waveguides. This method changes the refractive index of the waveguide cladding, thus changing the effective index of the system. Through using this technique we demonstrate the shift in resonant wavelength by a full free spectral range (FSR) by increasing the concentration of the salt water in the microfluidic device from 0% to 10%. On a 60 μm microring resonator, this equals a resonant wavelength shift of 1.514 nm when the index of the cladding changes by 0.017 refractive index units (RIU), or at a rate of 89.05 nm/RIU. These results are confirmed by simulations that use both analytical and numerical methods. This thesis also outlines the development of a process that uses two-photon absorption(TPA) in silicon to produce a photoelectrochemical (PEC) etching effect. TPA induces free carriers in silicon that then interact with the Hydroflouric Acid (HF) solution that the wafer is submerged in. This interaction removes silicon away from the wafer, which is the etching observed in our experiments. Non-line-of-sight PEC etching is demonstrated. The optical assemblies used in these experiments are presented, as are several of the results of the etching experiments.

La photonique sur silicium connaît depuis plusieurs années un fort développement avec la démonstration d’importants résultats concernant les interconnexions optiques. En effet, l’explosion du trafic de données au sein des centres de données a nécessité de trouver une solution annexe aux interconnexions métalliques afin de supporter de très hauts débits de transmission, tout en assurant une faible consommation énergétique et un coût raisonnable. Les applications de la photonique se situent d’une part dans le domaine des communications à longue distance entre équipements dont les standards actuels visent un débit de 400 Gb/s, et d’autre part dans le domaine des calculateurs à haute performance afin de réaliser les interconnexions courte distance entre un processeur et une banque de mémoires.STMicroelectronics s’est lancé depuis 2012 dans le développement d’une plateforme photonique sur silicium sur wafers de 300mm. Les principaux objectifs sont : la conception des composants optiques passifs et actifs pour réaliser un transceiver élémentaire à un débit de 20 Gb/s, l’intégration accrue des dispositifs électro-optiques afin de constituer un interposeur photonique, la capacité à gérer plusieurs longueurs d’onde.Dans ce contexte, le sujet de cette thèse porte sur la mise au point d’un circuit de qualification proposant l’intégration d’un transmetteur électro-optique à l’échelle de la puce.Cette solution tire bénéfice de l’architecture de l’assemblage en trois dimensions des éléments constitutifs au sein de l’interposeur et permet de traiter l’hétérogénéité des composants électriques et optiques.Dans ces travaux, nous proposons dans un premier temps d’étudier le modulateur optique. Celui-ci repose sur l’utilisation d’un anneau résonant dont la bande passante est optimisée afin de permettre des débits jusqu’à 50 Gb/s. Dans un second temps, nous décrivons la conception du driver électrique en technologie CMOS 55nm et expliquons le compromis mis en jeu entre la vitesse et la puissance consommée par le transmetteur. Les deux dispositifs sont fabriqués sur des plateformes distinctes, puis caractérisés et analysés par rapport à leur modèle respectif. Puis, nous réalisons une première intégration du transmetteur complet via un assemblage wire-bonding, ce qui nous permet de valider son fonctionnement et d’identifier les difficultés d’une telle co-intégration. Enfin, la dernière partie de la thèse est consacrée à la préparation d’un démonstrateur intégrant, dans un assemblage 3D à base de micro-piliers en cuivre, un lien électro-optique capable de transmettre 16 canaux à 20 Gb/s. Le multiplexage en longueurs d’onde déployé dans ce lien devrait permettre d’atteindre un débit total de 320 Gb/s. De plus, l’étude énergétique du système permet de s’assurer que l’interconnexion finale respectera les contraintes de consommation de puissance. / Stimulated by a series of important breakthrough, silicon photonics has been experiencing a significant development for several years. Indeed, due to exponential growth of data traffic inside datacenters, an alternative solution to metallic interconnects has been proposed to address very high transmission rates while ensuring a low energy consumption and a reasonable cost. Promising applications are in the field of both long- and short-distance optical communications. Long-range interconnects between datacenter equipment currently target an aggregate throughput of 400 Gb/s while short-reach interconnects are involved in high performance computers between a processor and a memory bank.STMicroelectronics has been developing a silicon photonic platform on 300 mm wafers since 2012. The main objectives are: the design of passive and active optical components to achieve an elementary 20 Gb/s transceiver, the increased integration of electro-optic devices to form a photonic interposer, the ability to manage several wavelengths.In this context, this PhD report deals with a testchip development at wafer level, proposing the integration of anelectro-optic transmitter. This solution benefits from the three dimensions assembly architecture of the dies within the photonic interposer and can handle the heterogeneity of electrical and optical components.This work first proposes to study the optical modulator which is based on a ring resonator. The ring bandwidth is optimized to operate up to 50 Gb/s. Secondly, the 55nm CMOS electrical driver design is described and the trade-off between transmitter speed and power consumption is highlighted. Both devices are fabricated on distinct technological platforms, then characterized and analyzed with respect to their respective models. A first integration of the complete transmitter is assembled through wire-bonding method, which enables to validate the transmitter operation. Finally, the last part of the report is devoted to the preparation of a 3D demonstrator based on micro-copper pillars assembly. The demonstrator integrates a wavelength division multiplexed link with 16 channels, which is expected to achieve a total throughput of 320 Gb/s. In addition, the system study enables to ensure that the final interconnect will respect power consumption constraints.

The scaling trend of microelectronics over the past 50 years, quantified by Moore’s Law, has faced insurmountable bottlenecks, necessitating the use of optical communication with its high bandwidth and energy efficiency to further improve computing performance. Silicon photonics, compatible with CMOS platform manufacturing, presents a promising means to achieve on-chip optical links, employing highly sensitive microring resonator devices that demand electronic feedback and control due to fabrication variations. Achieving the full potential of both technologies requires tight integration to realize the ultimate benefits of both realms of technology, leading to the convergence of microelectronics and photonics. A promising approach for achieving this convergence is the monolithic integration of electronics and photonics on CMOS platforms. A critical milestone was reached in 2015 with the demonstration of the first microprocessor featuring photonic I/O (Chen et al, Nature 2015), accomplished by integrating transistors and photonic devices on a single chip using a monolithic CMOS silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform (GlobalFoundries 45RFSOI, 45 nm SOI process) without process modifications, thus known as the "zero-change" approach. This dissertation focuses on leveraging the fabrication capabilities of advanced monolithic electronic-photonic 45 nm CMOS platforms, specifically high-resolution lithography and small feature size doping implants, to realize photonic devices with subwavelength features that could potentially provide the next leap in integrated optical links performance, beyond microring resonator based links. Photonic crystal (PhC) nanobeam cavities can support high-quality resonance modes while confining light in a small volume, enhancing light-matter interactions and potentially enabling ultimate efficiencies in active devices such as modulators and photodetectors. However, PhC cavities have been overshadowed by microring resonators due to two challenges. First, their fabrication demands high lithography resolution, which excludes most standard SOI photonic platforms as viable options for creating these devices. Secondly, the standing-wave nature of PhC nanobeam cavities complicates their integration into wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical links, causing unwanted reflections when coupled evanescently to a bus waveguide. In this work, we present PhC nanobeam cavities with the smallest footprint, largest intrinsic quality factor, and smallest mode volume to be demonstrated to date in a monolithic CMOS platform. The devices were fabricated in a 45 nm monolithic electronics–photonics CMOS platform optimized for silicon photonics, GlobalFoundries 45CLO, exhibiting a quality factor in excess of 100,000 the highest among fully cladded PhC nanobeam cavities in any SOI platform. Furthermore to eliminate reflections, we demonstrate an approach using pairs of PhC nanobeam cavities with opposite spatial mode symmetries to mimic traveling-wave-like ring behavior, enabling efficient and seamless WDM link integration. This concept was extended to realize a reflectionless microring resonator unit with two microrings operating as standing-wave cavities. Using this scheme with standing-wave microring resonators could lead to an optimum geometry for microring modulators with interdigitated p-n junctions in terms of modulation efficiency in a manner that allows for straightforward WDM cascading. This work also presents the first demonstration of resonant-structure-based modulators in the GlobalFoundries 45CLO platform. We report the first-ever demonstration of a PhC modulator in a CMOS platform, featuring a novel design with sub-wavelength contacts on one side allowing it to benefit from the "reflection-less"' architecture. Additionally, we also report the first demonstration of microring modulators. The most efficient devices exhibited electro-optical bandwidths up to 30 GHz, and 25 Gbps non-return-to-zero (NRZ) on-off-keyed (OOK) modulation with 1 dB insertion loss and 3.1 dB extinction ratio. Finally, as the complexity of silicon photonic systems-on-a-chip (SoC) increases to enable new applications such as low-energy data links, quantum optics, and neuromorphic computing, the need for in-situ characterization of individual components becomes increasingly important. By combining Near-field scanning optical microscopy (NSOM) with a flip-chip post-processing technique, this dissertation demonstrates a method to non-invasively perform NSOM scans of a photonic device within a large-scale CMOS-photonic circuit, without interfering with the performance and packaging of the photonics and electronics, making it a valuable tool for future development of high performance photonic circuits and systems.

In this thesis, group IV material oxides for silicon photonics applications were deposited using novel deposition techniques. Erbium and terbium doped silicon oxide thin films were deposited through a novel hybrid radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering source in an electron cyclotron resonance (ECR)-plasma enhanced chemical vapour deposition (PECVD) reactor chamber. This approach contrasts with traditional doping methods which use metal-organic precursors to introduce rare-earth dopant species into the host matrix. The effects of sputtering power applied to the rare-earth target and system plasma pressure on the thin film properties were investigated. It was found that the sputtering power strongly influences the rare-earth incorporation, and a wide range of control over the doping level can be achieved. The effect of sputtering power on the refractive index, stoichiometry, and film density were also investigated. Doped thin films deposited with this technique showed low as-deposited hydrogen concentrations. In the case of terbium doped silicon oxide (SiOx), photoluminescence (PL) studies were conducted finding bright emission due to 5D4 → 7F5 transitions visible with the naked eye in films annealed above 1150 °C. Further investigation found that silicon nanostructures formed at the high annealing temperatures and were likely sensitizing the Tb3+ ions. These results demonstrate that hybrid sputtering in ECR-PECVD can be an effective tool for integrating optically active rare-earth dopants into silicon-based thin films. Using alternating current (AC) plasma assisted reactive magnetron sputtering (PARMS), low optical loss germanium oxide (GeO2) thin films were also produced. The films were fabricated at low temperature and high deposition rates of 6–38 nm/min on silicon and thermally oxidized silicon substrates. Prism coupling measurements demonstrated losses of 0.1 dB/cm at wavelengths ranging from 638 to 980 nm attributed to good uniformity and low surface roughness demonstrated through atomic force microscopy (AFM) measurements. The thin films materials developed here are highly promising for their applications in silicon photonics devices, including light sources and amplifiers. / Thesis / Candidate in Philosophy

Silicon (Si) and silicon nitride (Si3N4) have become the dominant photonic integrated circuit (PIC) material platforms, due to their low-cost, wafer-scale production of high-performance circuits. However, novel materials can offer additional functionalities that cannot be easily accessed in Si and Si3N4, such as light emission. Tellurium oxide (TeO2) is a novel material of interest because of its large linear and non-linear refractive indices, low material losses and large rare-earth dopant solubility, with applications including compact low-loss waveguides and on-chip light sources and amplifiers. This thesis investigates the post-processing integration of TeO2 devices onto standardized Si and Si3N4 chips to incorporate TeO2 material advantages into high-performance PICs. Chapter 1 introduces the state-of-the-art functionality for various integrated photonic materials as well as methods for integrating multiple materials onto single chips. Chapter 2 presents the development of a high-quality TeO2 thin film fabrication process by reactive RF sputtering, with material refractive indices of 2.07 and optical propagation losses of <0.1 dB/cm at 1550 nm. Chapter 3 investigates a conformally coated TeO2-Si3N4 waveguide platform capable of large TeO2 optical confinement and tight bending radii, characterizing fiber-chip edge couplers down to ~5 dB/facet, waveguide propagation losses of <0.5 dB/cm, directional couplers with 100% cross-over ratio, and microresonators with internal Q factors of 7.3 × 105. In Chapter 4 a spectroscopic study of TeO2:Er3+-coated Si3N4 waveguide amplifiers was undertaken, with internal net gains of up to 1.4 dB/cm in a 2.2-cm-long waveguide and 5 dB total in a 6.7-cm-long sample demonstrated, predicted to reach >10 dB could 150 mW of pump power be launched based on a developed rate-equation model. Chapter 5 demonstrates TeO2-coated microtrench resonators coupled to silicon waveguides, with internal Q factors of up to 2.1×105 and investigates environmental sensing metrics of devices. Chapter 6 summarizes the thesis and provides avenues for future work. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Interest in nanophotonics continues to grow as integrated optics provides an affordable platform for areas like telecommunications, quantum information processing, and biosensing. Designing and characterizing integrated photonics components and circuits, however, remains a major bottleneck. This is especially true when complex circuits or devices are required to study a particular phenomenon.To address this challenge, this work develops and experimentally validates a novel machine learning design framework for nanophotonic devices that is both practical and intuitive. As case studies, artificial neural networks are trained to model strip waveguides, integrated chirped Bragg gratings, and microring resonators using a small number of simple input and output parameters relevant to designers. Once trained, the models significantly decrease the computational cost relative to traditional design methodologies. To illustrate the power of the new design paradigm, both forward and inverse design tools enabled by the new design paradigm are demonstrated. These tools are directly used to design and fabricate several integrated Bragg grating devices and ring resonator filters. The method's predictions match the experimental measurements well and do not require any post-fabrication training adjustments.

Computing as a service is rapidly becoming the new normal for many sectors of the economy. The widespread availability of broadband internet has allowed an extensive range of services to be delivered on-demand from centralized computing systems known as ‘data centers’. These systems have evolved to be enormously complex. Optical-based communication is desired to increase data center capability and efficiency, however traditional optical technologies are not feasible due to cost and size. Silicon photonics aims to deliver optical communications on an integrated and affordable platform for use in data centers by leveraging the existing capabilities of complementary metal-oxide semiconductor manufacturing. This thesis contains a description of the development of monolithic silicon photodiodes for use in photonic integrated circuits in, and beyond, the current telecommunications wavelength windows. The focus is on methods which are compatible with standard silicon processing techniques. This is in contrast to the current approaches which rely on hybrid material systems that increase fabrication complexity. Chapter 1 and 2 provide background information to place this work into context. Chapter 3 presents an experimental study of resonant devices with lattice defects which determines the refractive index change in silicon-on-insulator waveguides. High-speed operation of resonant photodiodes is demonstrated and is found to be limited by resonance instability. Chapter 4 demonstrates high responsivity avalanche photodetectors using lattice defects. The detectors are shown to operate error-free at 10 Gbit/s, thus confirming their capability for optical interconnects. Chapter 5 presents photodiodes operating with absorption through surface-state defects. These detectors show fast operation (10 Gbit/s) and have an extremely simple fabrication process. Chapter 6 demonstrates photodiodes operating beyond the traditional telecommunications window. Operation at 20 Gbit/s, at a wavelength of 1.96 µm is demonstrated, offering potential for their use in the next generation of optical communication systems which will exploit the thulium doped fiber amplifier. / Thesis / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / This thesis describes photodiodes constructed on silicon optical waveguides. The photodiodes are notable for their high-speed performance and simple fabrication methods. Such devices may find use within chip-integrated optical transceivers, which are desired for optical interconnects within large-scale computing systems such as data centers.

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