Electrooptical effects in silicon

Abstract

A numerical Kramers-Kronig analysis is used to predict the refractive-index perturbations produced in crystalline silicon by applied electric fields or by charge carriers. Results are obtained over the <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">1.0-2.0 \mu</tex> m optical wavelength range. The analysis makes use of experimental electroabsorption spectra and impurity-doping spectra taken from the literature. For electrorefraction at the indirect gap, we find <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">\Delta n = 1.3 \times 10^{5}</tex> at <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">\lambda = 1.07 \mu</tex> m when <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">E = 10^{5}</tex> V/cm, while the Kerr effect gives <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">\Delta n = 10^{-6}</tex> at that field strength. The charge-carrier effects are larger, and a depletion or injection of 10 <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">18</sup> carriers/cm <sup xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">3</sup> produces an index change of <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">\pm1.5 \times 10^{-3}</tex> at <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">\lambda = 1.3 \mu</tex> m.