Abstract
Understanding and mitigating optical loss is critical to the development of high-performance photonic integrated circuits (PICs). In particular, in high refractive index contrast compound semiconductor (III–V) PICs, surface absorption and scattering can be a significant loss mechanism, and needs to be suppressed. Here, we quantify the optical propagation loss due to surface state absorption in a suspended GaAs PIC platform, probe its origins using x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry, and show that it can be mitigated by surface passivation using alumina (Al2O3).
Funder
European Research Council
Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council
Subject
Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics