FABRICATION AND FUNDAMENTAL PROPERTIES OF AN EDGE-EMITTING DEVICE WITH STEP-INDEX POROUS SILICON WAVEGUIDE

It is demonstrated that an edge‐emitting device with a waveguide structure based on luminescent porous silicon (PS) operates at wavelengths in the visible region. The PS device is composed of an upper‐side cladding Al thin film, an active PS layer, and a lower‐side cladding PS layer with a smaller refractive index. When excited by an Ar ion laser with a wavelength of 458 nm, the device operates as an optical waveguide and consequently visible light can be observed from the cleaved facets of the device. The emitted light is significantly polarized along the direction of the transverse‐electric (TE) mode due to the metal cladding layer. These results suggest that PS is useful as a component for silicon‐based photonic integration.