Hybridization of III-V semiconductor membranes onto ion-exchanged waveguides

In this paper, we present an original method for the realization of hybrid photonic integrated circuits (PICs) based on ion-exchanged (IE) waveguides and III-V semiconductor materials. In our approach, we propose to bond thin semiconductor membranes at designated locations of the PIC where active functions are required. The advantage of very thin membranes is the possibility to keep the optical pathway defined by the IE waveguides even if the semiconductor refractive index is much higher than the glass refractive index. Modal analysis and beam propagation method simulations have been carried out in order to predict the modal structure of the propagated light into the membrane loaded IE waveguide and the transition from the IE waveguide itself through adiabatic tapers.