Experimental investigation on submicron rib waveguide microring/racetrack resonators in silicon-on-insulator

In experiment, characteristics of silicon microring/racetrack resonators in submicron rib waveguides have been systematically investigated. It is demonstrated that only a transverse-electric mode is guided for a ratio of slab height to rib height h/H = 0.5. Thus, these microring/racetrack resonators can only function for quasi-transverse-electric mode, while they get rid of transverse-magnetic polarization. Electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma etching were employed and improved to reduce sidewall roughness for low propagation loss and high performance resonators. Then, the effects of waveguide dimensions, coupling region design, waveguide roughness, and oxide cladding for the resonators have been considered and analyzed.