Electro-optic structure and process for fabricating same

Abstract

High quality epitaxial layers of oxide can be grown overlying large silicon wafers by first growing an accommodating buffer layer on a silicon wafer. The accommodating buffer layer is a layer of monocrystalline oxide spaced apart from the silicon wafer by an amorphous interface layer of silicon oxide. The amorphous intermediate layer dissipates strain and permits the growth of a high quality monocrystalline oxide accommodating buffer layer. Any lattice mismatch between the accommodating buffer layer and the underlying silicon substrate is taken care of by the amorphous intermediate layer. Waveguides may be formed of high quality monocrystalline material atop the monocrystalline buffer layer. The waveguides can suitably be formed to modulate the wave. Monolithic integration of oxide based electro-optic devices with III-V based photonics and Si circuitry is fully realized.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.