  This Letter introduces a Semiconductor-Under-Insulator (SUI) technology in
InP for designing strip waveguides that interface InP photonic crystal membrane
structures. Strip waveguides in InP-SUI are supported under an atomic layer
deposited insulator layer in contrast to strip waveguides in silicon supported
on insulator. We show a substantial improvement in optical transmission when
using InP-SUI strip waveguides interfaced with localized photonic crystal
membrane structures when compared with extended photonic crystal waveguide
membranes. Furthermore, SUI makes available various fiber-coupling techniques
used in SOI, such as sub-micron coupling, for planar membrane III-V systems.

Optics