Direct evidence of light confinement and emission enhancement in active silicon-on-insulator slot waveguides

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The authors experimentally demonstrate strong light confinement and enhancement of emission at 1.54μm in planar silicon-on-insulator waveguides containing a thin layer (slot) of SiO2 with Er3+ doped Si nanoclusters. Angle-resolved attenuated total reflectance is used to excite the slab guided modes, giving a direct evidence of the strong confinement of the electric field in the low-index active material for the fundamental transverse-magnetic mode. By measuring the guided photoluminescence from the cleaved-edge of the sample, the authors observe a more than fivefold enhancement of emission for the transverse-magnetic mode over the transverse-electric one. These results show that Si-based slot waveguides could be important as starting templates for the realization of Si-compatible active optical devices.