Aluminum nitride grating couplers

Grating couplers in sputtered aluminum nitride, a piezoelectric material with low loss in the C band, are demonstrated. Gratings and a waveguide micromachined on a silicon wafer with 600 nm minimum feature size were defined in a single lithography step without partial etching. Silicon dioxide (SiO2) was used for cladding layers. Peak coupling efficiency of -6.6 dB and a 1 dB bandwidth of 60 nm have been measured. This demonstration of wire waveguides and wideband grating couplers in a material that also has piezoelectric and elasto-optic properties will enable new functions for integrated photonics and optomechanics. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America