Hybrid Materials for Integrated Photonics

Abstract

In this review materials and technologies of the hybrid approach to integrated photonics (IP) are addressed. IP is nowadays a mature technology and is the most promising candidate to overcome the main limitations that electronics is facing due to the extreme level of integration it has achieved. IP will be based on silicon photonics in order to exploit the CMOS compatibility and the large infrastructures already available for the fabrication of devices. But silicon has severe limits especially concerning the development of active photonics: its low efficiency in photons emission and the limited capability to be used as modulator require finding suitable materials able to fulfill these fundamental tasks. Furthermore there is the need to define standardized processes to render these materials compatible with the CMOS process and to fully exploit their capabilities. This review describes the most promising materials and technological approaches that are either currently implemented or may be used in the coming future to develop next generations of hybrid IP devices.