Parabolic tapered photonic crystal cavity in silicon

We demonstrate the design, fabrication, transmission spectrum measurement, and near-field characterization of a parabolic tapered one-dimensional photonic crystal cavity in silicon. The results shows a relatively high quality factor (similar to 43 000), together with a small modal volume of similar to 1.1(lambda/n)(3). Moreover, the design allows repeatable device fabrication, as evident by the similar characteristics obtained for several tens of devices that were fabricated and tested. These demonstrated 1D PhC cavities may be used as a building block in integrated photonic circuits for optical on-chip interconnects and sensing applications. (C) 2012 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3679659]