Silicon photonics

With the goal of developing photonic components that are factory-compatible with silicon microelectronic integrated circuits and optical integrated circuits, silicon photonics has been the subject of intense research activity in both industry and academia. Silicon is an excellent material for confining and manipulating light at the submicrometer scale, and possesses the added advantage of leveraging the enormous manufacturing infrastructure developed by the silicon microelectronics industry. Silicon optoelectronic integrated devices have the potential to be miniaturized and mass-produced at affordable cost for many applications and markets, including telecommunications, optical interconnects, medical screening, and biological and chemical sensing. Recent developments in diverse areas, such as light sources, modulators, switches, detectors, photonic crystals, waveguide structures, resonators, sensors, and various subsystems, indicate that Si photonics is an extremely active, and now, firmly established research field. The aim of this special issue is to document some of the remarkable recent progress in silicon photonics from academic and industrial viewpoints and thereby point to future trends in this rapidly evolving field. All the articles in this issue are invited review or invited research papers by leading authorities and research groups in this field from universities, industry and government laboratories