Energy transfer at optical frequencies to silicon-based waveguiding structures

For decades, crystalline silicon (Si) has been the semiconductor of choice for the majority of applications in microelectronics. Recent advances in material science have focused attention on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, a submicrometer-thick layer of single crystal Si resting on an insulating silicon dioxide (SiO2) layer. Here we calculate the lifetime of an electric dipole moment oscillating in the cover region of several canonical Si waveguiding structures. We show that the vicinity just above SOI produces the most dramatic changes to the radiative lifetime and thus the power spectrum of the emitting dipole. We demonstrate that SOI stands apart from other Si-based optoelectronic platforms in its ability to transport energy, in the form of light, away from an oscillating electric dipole via highly localized, optical- and IR-frequency guided waves. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.