Coupled multiple micro-resonators design and active semiconductor micro-resonator fabrication

Unrestricted This dissertation presents semiconductor coupled multiple micro-resonators as the key elements of practical photonic integrated circuits (PICs) in future optical communication systems.; In the theoretical part, a transfer matrix method is applied in modeling the coupled multiple micro-resonators in parallel, cascade, and mutual configurations. 'Box-like' optical filters using mutually coupled multiple micro-resonators (MCMMR) are synthesized. Applications in multiplexers/demultiplexers (MUX/DEMUX) for wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) are discussed. Next, micro-resonators as building-block elements are analyzed emphasizing the device physics for design and fabrication. Different platform technologies categorized by the coupling geometry and surrounding material are simulated to understand the pros and cons of each platform.; In the experimental part, first devices based on a bus-coupled single-microresonator in active III/V semiconductors are successfully demonstrated. On the air-guided small microdisk vertically coupled to air-guided bus waveguides platform, 8-channel tunable MUX/DEMUX, 8-channel laser array, and optical phase modulators are fabricated using wafer-bonding techniques. On the all-buried large microring laterally coupled to buried bus waveguides platform, very high Q (>100000) tunable passive and SOA-integrated optical filters are fabricated. Then, the fabrication process for air-guided small microdisk vertically coupled buried bus waveguides is developed. Selective area deep etching using a SiNx/SiO2 multi-mask process is demonstrated, and high Q (~9000), low loss (<3/cm) tunable microdisk coupled to low loss buried bus waveguides is achieved. Finally, MCMMR based encoders/decoders for frequency hopping optical code division multiple access (FH-O-CDMA) are envisioned. Very long, low loss (~0.4/cm) 'spiral' buried waveguides are fabricated as true time delay lines.