The chemical vapor deposition of carbon is performed onto a commercial silicon nitride powder bed. This produces few-layered-graphene (FLG) films or islands on the Si3N4 particles. The samples are ...characterized by several techniques including Raman spectroscopy, scanning and transmission electron microscopy. The experimental parameters of the methane (CH4) decomposition (temperature, CH4 concentration, dwell time) are correlated to the average number of graphene layers (N). Complete coverage of the Si3N4 particles is achieved for FLG with N controlled in the range 5–12, corresponding to 4–12 wt%. of carbon. Below that, for stacks with N = 3–4, the coverage of the surface by FLG islands is not total. The value found for the activation energy of CH4 conversion into carbon shows that island-growth is favored over layer-growth. A macroscopical method based on a carbon proportion evaluation gives an approximation of both the coverage ratio and the average number of layers in the stack.
•Few-layered-graphene (FLG) deposited on the surface of Si3N4 particles, without any mixing and damaging the nanocarbons.•Complete coverage of the Si3N4 particles is achieved for FLG with the average number of graphene layers in the range 5-12.•Below that range, the Si3N4 particles are covered by FLG islands 3-4 layers thick.•The activation energy of CH4 conversion into carbon shows that island-growth is favored over layer-growth.•A macroscopical carbon content evaluation gives a good approximation of the coverage ratio and the average number layers.
Optical parametric oscillation (OPO) in Kerr microresonators can efficiently transfer near-infrared laser light into the visible spectrum. To date, however, chromatic dispersion has mostly limited ...output wavelengths to >560 nm, and robust access to the whole green light spectrum has not been demonstrated. In fact, wavelengths between 532 nm and 633 nm, commonly referred to as the “green gap”, are especially challenging to produce with conventional laser gain. Hence, there is motivation to extend the Kerr OPO wavelength range and develop reliable device designs. Here, we experimentally show how to robustly access the entire green gap with Kerr OPO in silicon nitride microrings pumped near 780 nm. Our microring geometries are optimized for green-gap emission; in particular, we introduce a dispersion engineering technique, based on partially undercutting the microring, which not only expands wavelength access but also proves robust to variations in resonator dimensions. Using just four devices, we generate >150 wavelengths evenly distributed throughout the green gap, as predicted by our dispersion simulations. Moreover, we establish the usefulness of Kerr OPO to coherent applications by demonstrating continuous frequency tuning (>50 GHz) and narrow optical linewidths (<1 MHz). Our work represents an important step in the quest to bring nonlinear nanophotonics and its advantages to the visible spectrum.Kerr optical parametric oscillation in silicon nitride microrings pumped near 780 nm generates > 150 wavelengths across the green gap (532-633 nm) with <1 MHz linewidths using only four devices.
High-quality Si3N4 powder is a prerequisite for the preparation of high-performance Si3N4 ceramics. In this paper, Si3N4 powders with regular morphology were successfully prepared by pyrolysis of ...Si(NH)2 using silicon as a nucleation inducing agent. The mechanism of the silicon in regulating the morphology and particle size of Si3N4 powders was investigated. The results show that when Si(NH)2 is pyrolyzed directly at 1500 °C under N2 atmosphere, the products are mainly whiskers accompanied by some particles with irregular shape. In the presence of silicon, the powder particles exhibit a regular hexagonal prismatic morphology. With the increase of silicon content, the whisker content decreases obviously, and the whisker disappears completely when the silicon content exceeds 10 %. Furthermore, the particle size of Si3N4 powder decreases with the increase of silicon content, and the particle size is the smallest when the silicon content is 15 wt%, which is about 802 nm. The nucleation and growth process of Si3N4 powder particles can be divided into three stages. Firstly, silicon reacts with N2 to form Si3N4 nuclei. Then, amorphous Si3N4 partially decomposes to form Si(g) and SiO(g) and grows on the formed Si3N4 nuclei as the temperature increased. Finally, undecomposed amorphous Si3N4 spontaneously nucleates and grows of the solid-phase diffusion mechanism. Ultimately, all the powders show equiaxial regular morphology. Preferential nitridation of silicon to form Si3N4 nuclei provides nucleation sites for vapor-phase products, which is the key to inhibiting whisker formation and regulating the particle size of Si3N4 powders.
Abstract
Integral imaging is a promising three-dimensional (3D) imaging technique that captures and reconstructs light field information. Microlens arrays are usually used for the reconstruction ...process to display 3D scenes to the viewer. However, the inherent chromatic aberration of the microlens array reduces the viewing quality, and thus, broadband achromatic imaging remains a challenge for integral imaging. Here, we realize a silicon nitride metalens array in the visible region that can be used to reconstruct 3D optical scenes in the achromatic integral imaging for white light. The metalens array contains 60 × 60 polarization-insensitive metalenses with nearly diffraction-limited focusing. The nanoposts in each high-efficiency (measured as 47% on average) metalens are delicately designed with zero effective material dispersion and an effective achromatic refractive index distribution from 430 to 780 nm. In addition, such an achromatic metalens array is composed of only a single silicon nitride layer with an ultrathin thickness of 400 nm, making the array suitable for on-chip hybrid-CMOS integration and the parallel manipulation of optoelectronic information. We expect these findings to provide possibilities for full-color and aberration-free integral imaging, and we envision that the proposed approach may be potentially applicable in the fields of high-power microlithography, high-precision wavefront sensors, virtual/augmented reality and 3D imaging.
A low-loss and broadband Formula Omitted Mach-Zehnder interferometer-based polarization beam splitter (PBS) is proposed and experimentally demonstrated on the silicon nitride platform. The device is ...realized by using a 27.7-Formula Omitted-long phase control section, which consists of two arms with different widths to separate TE and TM polarized lights by providing different phase changes. Furthermore, a compact asymmetric 3-dB directional coupler with a parallel-coupling length of only 1.2 Formula Omitted is proposed to support polarization independent operation and reduce the device length. The measurement results show that the proposed PBS has a minimum insertion loss of 0.13 dB for the TE polarization and 0.34 dB for the TM polarization. The extinction ratio is over 20 dB throughout the measured band from 1530 to 1610 nm for the TE polarization, and it is higher than 20 dB over the entire Formula Omitted-band for the TM polarization.
Silicon nitride photonics is on the rise owing to the broadband nature of the material, allowing applications of biophotonics, tele/datacom, optical signal processing and sensing, from visible, ...through near to mid-infrared wavelengths. In this paper, a review of the state of the art of silicon nitride strip waveguide platforms is provided, alongside the experimental results on the development of a versatile 300 nm guiding film height silicon nitride platform.
This study investigates the grain boundary (GB) strengths for Si3N4 ceramics doped with 3 wt% RE2O3 (RE = Y, La, or Lu) and 7 wt% MgO, using microcantilever beam specimens having different ...misorientation angles of the two adjacent grains. The measured strengths are so high that they are comparable to the theoretical strength of the intergranular glassy film (IGF). They are also widely scattered with a Weibull modulus of 3.0. The strength depends on the type of RE2O3 and increases in order of Y<La<Lu. It is suggested that the fracture occurs from the IGF/Si3N4 interfaces rather than within the IGF, and that O anions, which reside within the IGF and do not dissolve into the β-Si3N4 crystal lattice because of the high cationic field strength, reduce the IGF/grain interface strength. The GB strength also little depends on the misorientation angles, which is discussed in relation with the IGF accommodation ability of mismatch.
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