PORT: A piezoelectric optical resonance tuner

Abstract

This abstract presents an aluminum nitride (AlN) piezoelectric actuator for tuning optical resonance modes of silicon nitride photonic resonators. The AlN actuator is fabricated on top of a thick silicon dioxide cladding that encapsulates the nitride resonator and waveguide. The PORT is defined by undercutting the cladding layer with a lateral silicon etch. It tunes the optical wavelength by 20pm on applying 60 V to the top electrode with a 0.5nA current draw. The thick oxide cladding preserves the resonator's loaded quality factor Qoptical of 64,000 across the entire tuning range. The first bending mode is at 1.1MHz enabling a tuning speed of <1 μs.