Temperature Effects on Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) Racetrack Resonators: A Coupled Analytic and 2-D Finite Difference Approach

This paper presents a detailed analysis of racetrack resonators on silicon on insulator substrates. Both the temperature effects and the particularities of silicon nanophotonics are considered throughout the approach. This paper provides a detailed description of the numerical modeling and its application to different designs, while providing several charts and fitting equations. The results presented in this paper can be applied to three major applications: Thermo-optical tuning of optical resonators, thermo-optical modulator and wide range/high sensitivity temperature sensors. While quantifying the temperature effects, this paper also provides useful answers on how critical the temperature parameter is in the optical cavity behaviour.