Wavelength-selective coupling between vertically integratedthin-film waveguides via supermode by a pair of grating couplers

Grating coupling between vertically integrated waveguides via supermode was discussed and demonstrated. Two thin-film waveguides with grating couplers were stacked on a substrate. A guided wave in one waveguide is converted by a grating coupler to a supermode propagating contradirectionally, and then converted by another grating coupler to a guided wave in the other waveguide. The coupling shows high wavelength selectivity, and the wavelength-division add/drop multiplexing function can be combined. A demonstrator was designed and fabricated. Theoretically predicted coupling efficiency was almost 100% with wavelength selectivity of 2 nm, while the experimentally obtained value was 40% in the efficiency and 1 nm in the selectivity     

Ultrashort 2-D photonic crystal directional couplers

A novel approach to reduce the coupling length and to increase the coupling coefficient in waveguide directional couplers implemented on two-dimensional (2-D) photonic crystals (PhC) is proposed. To increase the coupling coefficient of a 2-D PhC directional coupler, which is composed of two parallel PhC waveguides separated by one or several rows of rods, the radius of the rods between both waveguides is reduced. The application of this feature to ultrasmall channel interleavers and wavelength demultiplexers is addressed.     

超薄金属膜V-型槽等离子波导的定向耦合研究

分析了在 1 550 nm 波长下超薄金属膜(金膜厚t=10 nm)V-型槽等离子波导间长程沟道等离激元导模的定向耦合。通过计算不同波导间距下的模式分布,得出了定向耦合器中奇、偶模有效折射率实部和传播长度随波导间距的变化情况,并进一步计算了相邻波导间的耦合长度、最大串扰与波导间距的关系曲线。计算结果表明:在波导间距较小时,耦合长度小于各模式的传播长度,随着波导间距的增加,耦合长度随之增加,最大串扰随之减小。对超薄金属膜V-型槽等离子波导的定向耦研究在集成光路的实际应用中具有重要的价值。     

Loss Reduction of Waveguide Crossings by Wavefront Matching Method and Their Application to Integrated Optical Circuits

This paper describes a waveguide crossing design that uses the wavefront matching (WFM) method. The WFM method enables us to design waveguide crossings with lower loss than simple crossings composed of two straight waveguides, without any crosstalk degradation. We report the procedure for designing waveguide crossings based on the WFM method and some experimental results. For experimental confirmation, we made a waveguide crossing test circuit using silica-based planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology. By comparing the results obtained with samples constructed with different $Delta$ waveguides, we show that our design method is very efficient for higher $Delta$ waveguides suitable for high-density integration. In addition, we describe an example application of our designed crossings to an integrated PLC device, namely a wavelength multiplexer with a variable optical attenuator. We show that waveguide crossings designed by the WFM method are useful for improving the loss characteristic of highly integrated PLC devices.      

High performance dual directional couplers for near-mm wavelengths

A low loss, high directivity dual directional coupler has been developed suitable for fabrication in waveguide bands up to WR3 (220-325 GHz). The design uses waveguide split on the E plane centerline with three waveguides running side by side and coupling holes made by drilling through all three guides. Construction is relatively simple and the resulting structure is very robust mechanically. Typical coupling is 15 dB, directivity is 25-30 dB, and the insertion loss of the WR3 coupler is 0.5 dB     

宽频太赫兹非对称主副波导定向耦合器设计

基于微型无人机雷达、精确制导武器雷达及无线通信终端设备的应用前景,设计了一种非对称主副波导定向耦合器。该耦合器采用主副波导为不同形状的等间距多孔耦合结构,将主矩形波导TE10模的信号耦合到副圆形波导TE11模中,利用相位叠加原理使得隔离端口相位达到反向相消的效果,能够得到良好的耦合度和隔离度。该耦合器中心频率为400 GHz,相对带宽为40 GHz,结果表明,定向耦合器耦合度达到-13.8～-12.8 d B,实现了弱耦合效果且耦合度稳定性较好,隔离度优于-24.5dB,直通插入损耗为-3～-2.5 dB,性能良好。     

Optical waveguide directional coupler measurements using amicrocomputer-assisted TV camera system

Characterization of optical waveguide directional couplers using a microcomputer-assisted TV camera system is reported. A fluorescent technique is employed to visualize wave propagation in the optical waveguides, which exhibit small scattering. The method is simple and reproducible, and can be used to estimate waveguide losses and evaluate various optical devices such as waveguide lenses and waveguide interferometers on substrates. As an example of its application, parallel and nonparallel dual-chamber directional couplers and parallel triple-channel directional couplers are measured. Power transfer between the coupled channel waveguides is observed clearly, and coupling coefficients of the couplers are obtained nondestructively. The measured performance of the couplers is in good agreement with that predicted by coupled-mode analysis     

Integrated directional couplers with photodetectors by hydridevapour phase epitaxy

The hydride vapour-phase-epitaxial crystal growth technique has been used to realise integrated waveguide-photodetectors and, for the first time, integrated directional coupler-photodetectors for detection in the 1.3 μm to 1.55 μm wavelength range. The GaInAsP waveguides which formed the directional couplers had propagation losses of 2±0.5 dB/cm and more than 90% of the guided light was coupled into the photodetectors. The directional couplers were symmetric with respect to the launch port and had 3 dB coupling lengths of about 1.45 mm     

Compact Bends for Achieving Higher Integration Densities for LiNbO$_{3}$ Waveguides

A new waveguide platform is demonstrated that allows the bend radii to be substantially decreased for titanium-diffused lithium-niobate (LiNbO₃) waveguides using vertically integrated arsenic-trisulfide (As₂S₃) overlay waveguides. Power is transferred from a Ti-diffused waveguide into the overlay waveguide using tapers, guided by the As₂S₃ waveguide through the S-bend region and transferred back into another Ti-diffused waveguide. This structure also behaves like a polarization beam splitter. We present simulation results as well as measurements to show the feasibility of achieving low loss and reduced bend radii for electrooptic waveguides.     

A vertically coupled InGaAsP/InP directional coupler filter of ultranarrow bandwidth

A report is presented on the design, analysis, and experiment of an InGaAsP/InP ultranarrow-bandwidth wavelength filter. The device consists of two vertically coupled waveguides of dissimilar cross sections and different material parameters. Whereas the upper thin waveguide uses air cladding in the lateral direction, the lower thick waveguide is weakly confined laterally. The difference in the optical confinements of the two waveguides is designed to give rise to a rapid decrease in the coupling strength with the wavelength deviating from the central wavelength, thereby achieving a narrow bandwidth. The measured -3-dB bandwidth (full width at half maximum) is >     

Optical interconnection using VCSELs and polymeric waveguidecircuits

We investigated the waveguide loss and transmission characteristics for optical interconnection using vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and multimode polymeric waveguide circuits with crossings. The excess loss with 100 crossings is 2.2 dB when the image magnification from a VCSEL to a waveguide is 2.3. We obtained error-free (i.e., bit error rate <10^-11) optical interconnection at 1.0625 Gbps regardless of the number of crossings or the magnification. These results suggest the practicality of large-scale optical interconnection between VCSEL-based smart-pixel chips using multimode waveguides with more than 100 crossings     

Enhancement of power transfer in periodic array of optical waveguides via intermediate Bloch states

A directional coupling mechanism between different waveguides in a periodic array of waveguides is suggested. The optical power transfer between two different waveguides is mediated by the coupling between zero-order modes of two of the waveguides and the second band of the periodic structure. Analytical solutions for the no-detuning (narrow band) and far-from-resonance cases are presented. The far-from-resonance case is shown to resemble a simple two-mode system with complete optical power transfer between the two waveguides, coupled by localized gratings. The transfer is mediated by the second band of the periodic structure. The transition length depends strongly on the shape of the perturbation, and depends exponentially on the distance between the waveguides, yet it allows us to transfer power from one waveguide to another at such distances, for which the transition via conventional directional tunneling mechanism is impossible. Our analytical results are supported by numerical calculations carried out for a model problem with realistic parameters.     

Rigorous Analysis of Wide-Band Directional Coupler Using Π-Shape Dielectric Waveguide

Wide-band directional couplers using П-Shape dielectric waveguide in the parallel coupling region are investigated in detail by a rigorous mode matching method, both the eigenvalue problem of the coupled П-guide and the coupling characteristics of curved transition structure are solved accurately. Particular attention is directed toward the effects of transition waveguides on the scattering and coupling performance of the coupler to give useful guidelines for the design and optimization consideration. Finally, a 3-dB directional coupler is proposed with quite constant coupling factor (within ±0.5dB) throughout a wide frequency band from 34 GHz to 40 GHz.     

Scalar modes and coupling characteristics of eight-port waveguidecouplers

The scalar modes and the coupling characteristics of an eight-port waveguide coupler consisting of four parallel single-mode waveguides are discussed. The analysis is based on a rectangular waveguide model which has been known to give accurate results in the case of two waveguide directional couplers. A classification of its various scalar modes is also given     

Vertical InP/InGaAsP tapers for low-loss optical fibre-waveguide coupling

The authors have realised vertically tapered and antireflection-coated waveguides in InP/InGaAsP with 1.7 dB coupling loss and relaxed alignment tolerances to lensed single-mode fibres with spot diameters of 3.8 mu m. The waveguide tapers are fabricated by a dip-etch process that is well suited for integration with optical waveguide circuits.<>     

Directional coupler switch with reduced voltage-length product

The phase change×interaction length product needed to switch a directional coupler is shown to be reduced by decreasing the coupling coefficient at the middle of the interaction region. To implement the structure with parallel waveguides, an additional fabrication process to produce the low index region was needed. Instead of reducing the index, enlarging the waveguide gap can be used to decrease the coupling coefficient to gain the same effect. To reduce the coupling coefficient at the middle of the interaction region, the gap between waveguides was gradually enlarged from both ends to the center. To simplify the fabrication processes, the varied waveguide gap structure was used. The single-mode waveguides were fabricated on z cut LiNbO₃ by in-diffusing 7-μm-wide ti. The design, fabrication, and measurements are discussed     

SSFLC optical directional coupler switch with a short devicelength: a proposal

A novel vertical directional coupler waveguide switch composed of ferroelectric liquid crystal (FLC) is proposed and analyzed. The surface stabilized ferroelectric liquid crystal break (SSFLC) is used as an active separation layer between passive waveguides. To decrease the switching length, the waveguide switch is based on the power crossing the separation layer rather than coupling between waveguides. The calculated results relevant to the switch parameters such as the switching length, switching time, capacitance, and extinction ratio are presented. Because of the large birefringence of FLC, a very short switching length, less than 60 μm, is possible     

Grating-assisted coupling of light between semiconductor and glasswaveguides

Floquet-Bloch theory is used to calculate the electromagnetic fields in a leaky-mode grating-assisted directional coupler (LM-GADC) fabricated with semiconductor and glass materials. One waveguide is made from semiconductor materials (refractive index ≈3.2) while the second is made from glass (refractive index ≈1.45). The coupling of light between the two waveguides is assisted by a grating fabricated at the interface of the glass and semiconductor materials. Unlike typical GADC structures where power is exchanged between two waveguides using bound modes, this semiconductor/glass combination couples power between two waveguides using a bound mode (confined to the semiconductor) and a leaky mode (associated with the glass). The characteristics of the LM-GADC are discussed. Such LM-GADC couplers are expected to have numerous applications in areas such as laser-fiber coupling, photonic integrated circuits, and on-chip optical clock distribution. Analyses indicate that simple LM-GADC's can couple over 40% of the optical power from one waveguide to another in distances less than 1.25 mm     

Low‐Loss Compact Arrayed Waveguide Grating with Spot‐Size Converter Fabricated by a Shadow‐Mask Etching Technique

This paper describes a low‐loss, compact, 40‐channel arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) which utilizes a monolithically integrated spot‐size converter (SSC) for lowering the coupling loss between silica waveguides and standard single‐mode fibers. The SSC is a simple waveguide structure that is tapered in both the vertical and horizontal directions. The vertically tapered structure was realized using a shadow‐mask etching technique. By employing this technique, the fabricated, 40‐channel, 100 GHz‐spaced AWG with silica waveguides of 1.5% relative index‐contrast showed an insertion‐loss figure of 2.8 dB without degrading other optical performance.     

A unified approach to coupled-mode phenomena

A unified approach is presented for the treatment of various coupled-mode phenomena in two parallel waveguides. This approach is summarized in a set of four coupled equations, which is derived directly from Maxwell's equations. The equations are further simplified when applied to special cases such as evanescent coupling and grating-assisted coupling between parallel waveguides [e.g., reduced to a set of two equations]. In particular, for evanescently coupled waveguides, the equations reduce to the familiar vectorial coupled-mode equations. For grating-assisted waveguides the equations agree with earlier treatments, although, in some cases, may include extra terms which were omitted previously. Considering the special case of perturbations in a single waveguide, the equations in the examples coincide with those given elsewhere in earlier works. The reduction to scalar equations or extension to multiwaveguide systems is straightforward