Fabrication
Planar slot-waveguides have been fabricated in different material systems such as Si/SiO2 and Si3N4/SiO2. Both vertical (slot plane is normal to the substrate plane) and horizontal (slot plane is parallel to the substrate plane) configurations have been implemented by using conventional micro- and nano-fabrication techniques. These processing tools include electron beam lithography, photolithography, chemical vapour deposition, thermal oxidation, reactive-ion etching and focused ion beam.
In vertical slot-waveguides, the slot and strips widths are defined by electron- or photo-lithography and dry etching techniques whereas in horizontal slot-waveguides the slot and strips thicknesses are defined by a thin-film deposition technique or thermal oxidation. Thin film deposition or oxidation provides better control of the layers dimensions and smoother interfaces between the high-index-contrast materials than lithography and dry etching techniques. This makes horizontal slot-waveguides less sensitive to scattering optical losses due to interface roughness than vertical configurations.
Fabrication of a non-planar (fiber-based) slot-waveguide configuration has also been demonstrated by means of conventional microstructured optical fiber technology.
Read more about this topic: Slot-waveguide
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