Photonic micro-structures produced by selective etching of laser-crystallized amorphous silicon

We present a method for the production of polycrystalline Si (poly-Si) photonic micro-structures based on laser writing. The method consists of local laser-induced crystallization of amorphous silicon (a-Si) followed by selective etching in chemical agents that act preferentially on the a-Si material, consequently revealing the poly-Si content of the film. We have studied the characteristics of these structures as a function of the laser processing parameters and we demonstrate their potential photonic functionality by fabricating polycrystalline silicon ridge optical waveguides. Preliminary waveguide transmission performance results indicated an optical transmission loss of 9 dB/cm in these unrefined devices. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.