The marvels of the III-V semiconductor photonic crystals on SOI hybrid nanophotonics platform

InP on Silicon on Insulator (SOI) hybrid technology is an extremely powerful solution for future photonic circuits as it combines CMOS compatibility with optoelectronic properties of III-V materials. By integrating semiconductor photonic crystal (PhC) structures on top of SOI waveguides we move towards nanophotonics and demonstrate the potential of this technology for a wide variety of applications. We also show how this platform would serve for the study of the underlying physics, investigating new coupling mechanisms as well as exploring novel phenomena in nonlinear optics due to enhanced light-matter interaction. We demonstrate for the first time wavelength conversion and power limiting function in a system experiment at 20 Gbit/s using a PhC nanocavity based on III-V/SOI hybrid technology which incorporates an active material optimised for ultrahigh speed operation.