Low-Loss BaTiO3–Si Waveguides for Nonlinear Integrated Photonics
Abstract
Barium titanate (BaTiO 3 ) has become an attractive material to extend the functionalities of the silicon photonics platform because of its large Pockels coefficient of more than 1000 pm/V. BaTiO 3 integrated epitaxially on silicon-on-insulator substrates can be structured in passive and electro-optic silicon photonic devices using slot-waveguide geometries, both of which have been demonstrated. However, all devices demonstrated so far suffer from high optical propagation losses of ∼40–600 dB/cm, which limits their performance compared with state-of-the-art silicon photonics devices (<2 dB/cm). Here, we identify the origin of these high propagation losses and demonstrate a path to fabricate low-loss BaTiO 3 –Si waveguides with propagation losses of only 6 dB/cm. In particular, we identified the thin strontium titanate (SrTiO 3 ) seed layer typically used for the epitaxial deposition of BaTiO 3 on silicon as the main source of absorption: When manufacturing slot-waveguide structures, the BaTiO 3 /SrTiO 3 layer stack is typically exposed to hydrogen, which is incorporated in the SrTiO 3 layer, and causes absorption. We demonstrate that a low-temperature anneal is sufficient to remove hydrogen and to achieve low propagation losses in waveguides. Thus, we found a way to eliminate the previously observed showstopper for incorporating functional and highly nonlinear barium titanate films into silicon photonic structures, ultimately enabling ultra-high-speed switches and novel nonvolatile optical silicon photonic devices.
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BaTiO3 has a transparency window from 460 to 6300 nm, high refractive index, and can be epitaxially integrated on silicon-on-insulator substrates.
“Similarly to LN, due to its transparency window that is wide, from 460 to 6300 nm, BTO becomes another candidate for communication technology. Waveguides are a possible application of this ferroelectric material, due to its high refractive index value as well as its epitaxial integration on siliconon-insulator substrates [204-208].”
From Metal Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Photonic Applications (2026) · cites this paper as [205]
BaTiO3 has a Pockels coefficient larger than 1000 pm/V, the highest compared to other stoichiometric complex oxides.
“Barium titanate (BaTiO3 or BaO × TiO2 or BT) is a lead-free ferroelectric material, which in recent years has had a growing range of applications, especially in the photonic field [180,202], and more specifically in nonlinear optics due to its Pockels coefficient being larger than 1000 pm/V [203], the highest in comparison to other stoichiometric complex oxides [204,205].”
From Metal Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Photonic Applications (2026) · cites this paper as [205]
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- Authors
- Eltes, F., Caimi, D., Fallegger, F., Sousa, M., O’Connor, E., Rossell, M. D., Offrein, B., Fompeyrine, J., & Abel, S.
- Affiliations
- IBM Research - Zurich (CH)
- IBM Research−Zurich, Säumerstrasse 4, 8803 Rüschlikon, Switzerland
- Empa (CH)
- Corresponding author
- Eltes, Felix
- Abel, Stefan
- ORCID
- Venue
- ACS Photonics
- Publisher
- American Chemical Society (ACS)
- Published
- 2016-08-29
- Volume
- 3
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1698-1703
- ISSN
- 2330-4022 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2515285021
- Cited by
- 122
- References
- 37
- Citations by year
- 2026: 8 · 2025: 13 · 2024: 15 · 2023: 18 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 14 · 2020: 11 · 2019: 13 · 2018: 16 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 1
- FWCI
- 5.38
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- ACS Photonics (publishedVersion)
- DORA Empa (Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (Empa)) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- European Commission (619456)
- Swiss National Foundation (200021_159565)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Electrical and Electronic Engineering › Photonic and Optical Devices
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Statistical and Nonlinear Physics › Nonlinear Photonic Systems
- Keywords
- barium titanate, slot waveguide, path loss, hydrogen incorporation, low-temperature annealing, electro-optic modulator, nonlinear integrated photonics, hydrogen removal
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