Design, analysis and optimization of porous silicon microcavity based on silicon-on-insulator at optical communication wavelengths

Abstract With optimized parameters and the optimized sequence structure from simulations, proper porous silicon microcavity (PSM) based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer, constituted of a Fabry–Perot cavity between distributed Bragg reflectors (DBRs), has been achieved. Just as expected, the resonance wavelengths of these two oxidized PSMs are located separately at 1328 nm and 1560 nm, which are very close to the optical communication wavelengths of 1310 nm and 1550 nm. The effects of tuning resonance wavelength were shown by composition of Fabry–Perot cavity integrated on each thickness of porous silicon layer. Since the preparation technology of optical devices with these working wavelengths has been well developed, it is expected that such a design could be of great potential in realizing integrated optical devices. Compared with various optical devices on SOI wafer, PSM based on SOI by electrochemical anodization is simple and low-cost. Moreover, a sharp resonance in the reflectance spectrum means a high Q factor which predicts an interesting possibility in sensor application on SOI wafer.