Hybrid III–V/silicon on insulator nonlinear nanophotonics

Hybrid III-V/silicon on insulator nonlinear nanophotonics is reported. The structure is a 2 optical level structure where the bottom level is made of a single mode SOI waveguide and the top level made of an InP-based active nanocavity (wire cavity) that contains quantum wells emitting around 1.55μm. Light channels from one level to the other through evanescent wave coupling. The nonlinear behaviour under optical injection is studied and results on switching and optical bistability is presented.