Physics

Geology

Silicon on insulator

Resonator

Optics

Oceanography

Silicon photonics

Wafer

Polishing

Hybrid silicon laser

Composite material

Metallurgy

Materials science

Photonics

Substrate (aquarium)

Silicon carbide

Wafer bonding

Silicon

Optoelectronics

Optics Express

We report a high-quality 3C-silicon carbide (SiC)-on-insulator (SiCOI) integrated photonic material platform formed by wafer bonding of crystalline 3C-SiC to a silicon oxide (SiO2)-on-silicon (Si) substrate. This material platform enables to develop integrated photonic devices in SiC without the need for undercutting the Si substrate, in contrast to the structures formed on conventional 3C-SiC-on-Si platforms. In addition, we show a unique process in the SiCOI platform for minimizing the effect of lattice mismatch during the growth of SiC on Si through polishing after bonding. This results in a high-quality SiCOI platform that enables record high Qs of 142,000 in 40 µm radius SiC microring resonators. The resulting SiCOI platform has a great potential for a wide range of applications in integrated optics, including nonlinear optical devices, quantum optical devices, and high-power optical devices.

High-Q integrated photonic microresonators on 3C-SiC-on-insulator (SiCOI) platform