| This dissertation pertains to the fabrication of photonic integrated circuits for high speed signal processing and optical communication. A novel component, a nanophotonic coupler, based on frustrated total internal reflection allows two orders of magnitude size reduction on current technology. Fabrication of this component however requires very high aspect ratio trenches etched in InP and InP based quantum well substrates. The HBr reactive ion etching of the required substrate in a manner that supports the overall device fabrication is discussed in this dissertation. |
