TE-TM mode splitter with heterogeneously coupled Ti-diffused andNi-diffused waveguides on Z-cut lithium niobate

A coupling type mode splitter with an extraordinary polarisation and a random polarisation waveguide made by Ni and Ti indiffusion, respectively, on a Z-cut LiNbO₃ substrate is described for the first time. With optimised process parameters: a very small TM mode profile mismatch is obtained due to the similar characteristics of the Ti- and Ni-diffused waveguides. The measured extinction ratios of the TE and TM modes at 1.55 μm wavelength are >22 dB     

Zn indiffusion waveguide polarizer on a Y-cut LiNbO3 at1.32-μm wavelength

A polarization-dependent loss measurement of Zn indiffusion (ZI) waveguide on a Y-cut LiNbO₃ substrate is firstly reported. The measured results show that the waveguides support either a single extraordinary polarization or both extraordinary and ordinary polarizations depending on the fabrication process parameters. For the single extraordinary polarization waveguide, the measured propagation loss at 1.32-μm wavelength is 0.9 dB/cm and the best measured polarization extinction ratio is 44 dB at a distance of 1.5 cm from the input end, which are quite good for being a waveguide polarizer. Moreover, the voltage-length product measured for the ZI Mach-Zehnder modulator shows that the substrate electrooptic coefficient is not degraded     

用于光互连的聚硅氧烷脊型光波导研究

采用软成型和图案转移技术,制备了可用于高速芯片间光互连的大尺寸聚硅氧烷脊型光波导,光波导长度达23cm.利用有效折射率法,对芯层残留层和传输模场的关系进行了分析.采用截断和数字化散射两种方法,测得输入光波长为633nm时的平均传输损耗小于0.14dB/cm.研究结果表明,波导的长度和损耗指标满足高速芯片间光互连的要求.     

Optical waveguides in SIMOX structures

Propagation characteristics determined experimentally and theoretically for planar optical waveguides formed in separation by implantation of oxygen (SIMOX) structures are discussed. All samples were found to support both TE and TM modes at both 1.15 μm and 1.523 μm with a lowest propagation loss of 8 dB/cm. This loss was measured at a wavelength of 1.15 μm for the TE₀ mode of a planar waveguide with a 2.0-μm-thick Si guiding layer     

Electro-optical modulators using novel buried waveguides inGaInAsP/InP material

Losses as low as 0.4±0.2 dB/cm and electro-optical modulation efficiencies as high as 5°/V/mm have been obtained in single mode waveguides employing a novel buried structure in GaInAsP/InP grown by LPMOCVD and processed by selective chemical etching. Such modulators are potentially excellent candidates for integrated optoelectronics     

Leaky mode propagation in planar multilayer birefringentwaveguides: longitudinal dielectric tensor configuration

In this paper we examine leaky mode propagation in a general five-layered c-rotated optical structure with longitudinal dielectric tenser configuration that can be considered a useful pattern for many actual waveguides. The dependence of the leaky mode propagation on the longitudinal angle φ (between the optical c-axis and laboratory axis) is shown and the dispersion characteristics for different types and thicknesses of buffer and metal layer are reported. The guided mode losses at the wavelength λ=0.633 μm assume the lowest values (about 1 dB/cm) for an Ag layer and for φ=0°. Furthermore, we investigate the variation in the propagation characteristics of the leaky and guided modes with respect to the source wavelength. We obtain the transition wavelength from (G) guided modes to lowest order (L¹ ) leaky mode, having the ordinary component that leaks into the substrate; the transition wavelength to a higher order (L²) leaky mode, which has both ordinary and extraordinary leaky components and the leaky cutoff wavelength. As an example, for φ=10° and an Ag metal layer, the first-order G₁₁ mode transforms from guided to leaky L₁₁¹ at λ_gl≃0.9 μm. The losses exhibit a change of several dB near the wavelength transition from guided to leaky mode (e.g. The attenuation constant of the G₁₁ mode changes from 0.26×10² dB/cm at λ=0.633 μm to 0.18×10 ⁵ dB/cm at λ=0.95 μm where its ordinary component is a leaky one). A similar change is found near the transition wavelength from a lowest-order mode to the highest-order leaky mode     

Propagation properties in short lengths of rectangular epoxywaveguides

The propagation loss and beam spreading in large-core epoxy ridge waveguides on a glass substrate at wavelengths ranging from 630 to 1550 nm have been measured. At the intermediate wavelengths, a loss floor of 1.2 dB/cm is observed which is caused by inclusions and wall imperfections. The theoretical and experimentally determined equilibrium numerical aperture is 0.65 and 0.29 and the modal dispersion is 5.1 and 1.0 ps/cm, respectively. The discrepancy is due to strong scattering. The scattering does not give rise to any noticeable mode mixing. The epoxy waveguides also provide a rapid filling of the modes which is attractive for modal noise suppression     

0.15 dB/cm loss in Unibond SOI waveguides

The optical loss of Unibond waveguides is measured and reported for the first time, using grating couplers. At a wavelength of 1.3 μm, a loss of 0.15±0.05 dB/cm is obtained for TE polarisation. This allows good quality low loss integrated optical circuits to be fabricated at low cost     

Integration of an electrooptic polymer in an integrated opticscircuit on silicon

This paper presents the joining of active nonlinear polymer waveguides with passive silicon nitride waveguides (SiO₂-Si ₃N₄-SiO₂) to form an integrated Mach-Zehnder modulator with a lateral electrode configuration on a silicon substrate. Passive and active waveguides are based on a silicon-nitride-strip guiding structure. In the active waveguide a nonlinear polymer layer is used to obtain an index modulation via the electrooptic effect. Despite the silicon nitride strip based guiding structure, 63% of the energy of the fundamental mode is guided in the nonlinear polymer (provided by Flamel Technology, Venissieux, France). Poling with field strengths up to 75 V/μm applied to the lateral electrodes has been employed to orient the chromophores. A half wave voltage of 35 V has been measured for an electrooptic coefficient of 5.8 pm/V at a wavelength of 1.3 μm. Optical loss measurements have been done on polymer and passive waveguides. The best results have been 1.8 dB/cm for the active and 0.78 dB/cm for the passive waveguides leading to a total loss of 6 dB for a modulator with an interaction length of 2.5 cm. The coupling loss between a laser diode and the passive waveguide structure was measured to be at least 4.6 dB using a microscope objective and piezo-electric displacement elements. Stability tests under atmospheric conditions have shown a decrease of the electrooptic coefficient which might be due to the hygroscopic behavior of the active polymer. The bandwidth of the modulator has been determined to be 4 MHz     

Fabrication and Evaluation of Nano-Scale Optical Circuits Using Sol-Gel Materials With Photo-Induced Refractive Index Variation Characteristics

Nano-scale optical circuits with core thickness of ~ 230 nm and core width of ~ 1 mum were fabricated and evaluated, using the photo-induced refractive index variation sol-gel materials, whose refractive index gradually increases by UV light exposure and baking. Propagation loss of linear waveguides was 1.86 dB/cm for TE mode and 1.89 dB/cm for TM mode at 633 nm in wavelength, indicating that there were small polarization dependences of ~ 0.03 dB/cm. Spot sizes of guided beams along core width direction and along core thickness direction were, respectively, 0.6 and 0.3 mu m for both TE mode and TM mode. Bending loss of S-bending waveguides was reduced from 0.44 to 0.24 dB for TE mode with increasing the bending curvature radius from 5 to 60 mu m. Although the bending loss for TM mode was slightly higher than that for TE mode, the difference was less than 10%. Branching loss of Y-branching waveguides was reduced from 1.33 to 0.08 dB for TE mode, and from 1.34 to 0.12 dB for TM mode with decreasing the branching angle from 80deg to 20deg. From these results, it is concluded that the photo-induced refractive index variation sol-gel materials can realize miniaturized optical circuits with sizes of several tens of microns and guided beam confinement within a cross section area less than 1.0 mum² with small polarization dependences, indicating potential applications to intra-chip optical interconnects.     

A dual wavelength (1.32-1.56 μm) directional couplerdemultiplexer by ion exchange in glass

A 1.32-1.56-μm demultiplexer using a symmetrical directional coupler consisting of Ag⁺-Na⁺ exchanged channel waveguides in BK7 glass with a total insertion loss of 1.25 dB for a 14.5-mm-long device and a propagation loss of 0.15 dB/cm is demonstrated. The crosstalk at 1.315 and 1.561 μm and the cross power ratio at 1.315 μm were measured to be less than -40 dB for the TE mode     

Fabrication of buried channel waveguides in fused silica usingfocused MeV proton beam irradiation

Low-loss channel waveguides have been fabricated in fused silica using a beam of MeV protons focused down to a spot size of several microns. By using a combination of beam and sample scanning, single- and multimode graded index waveguides with lateral dimensions down to approximately 5 μm×5 μm have been fabricated using ion doses in the range (3×10¹⁴)-(6×10¹⁶) ions/cm ². Typical beam currents in the range 100 pA-10 nA were used. Optical mode profiles have been measured at 670 nm and propagation losses of the order of 3 dB/cm measured in unannealed samples. Annealing the substrate for 1 h at 500°C reduced these losses to below 0.5 dB/cm     

Silicon raised strip waveguides based on silicon and silicon dioxide thermal bonding

Si raised strip waveguides on SiO/sub 2/ have been proposed and fabricated, which are based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) material. In the waveguides, the SOI technique utilizes silicon and silicon dioxide thermal bonding and back-polishing. An anisotropic etchant is used to produce the trapezoidal Si raised strip waveguides by etching the Si film down to the SiO/sub 2/ etch-stop buried layer. The transmission losses of the Si waveguides are measured to be less than 0.2 dB/cm at the 1.3 /spl mu/m wavelength for the lowest mode TE-like mode.     

Poling-induced waveguide polarizers in electrooptic polymers

In order to demonstrate polymeric waveguide polarizers, photobleached polymer waveguides supporting both TE and TM modes are integrated with poling induced polymer waveguides that support either TE or TM modes. Fabrication parameters like UV exposures and poling voltages are controlled to reduce excess losses due to the mode profile mismatch between the connected waveguides. A TM-pass polarizer is realized by poling the polymer in the vertical direction. For TE-pass polarizer the polymer is poled horizontally by using four poling electrodes which enhance the uniformity of the poling field direction. The measured excess loss is less than 0.5 dB, and polarization extinction ratios for TM-pass and TE-pass polarizers are 20.7 dB and 17.1 dB, respectively.     

Optical directional coupler using deposited silica waveguides (DS guides)

A new optical directional coupler using embedded single-mode glass waveguides is presented. The glass waveguides, called deposited silica waveguides (DS guides), were fabricated by depositing doped glass on a silica substrate after forming grooves by reactive sputter etching. Waveguide transmission loss was measured to be 1.3 dB/cm, and fiber-to-waveguide coupling loss was 0.1 dB. Using a tunable monochromatic light source, 96 percent power transfer or 14 dB isolation was measured. The DS guide directional coupler is compatible with single-mode fiber and is expected to be a useful component for future wavelength division multiplexing transmission systems.     

Compression-molded three-dimensional tapered polymeric waveguidesfor low-loss optoelectronic packaging

We report for the first time, three-dimensionally tapered polymeric waveguides fabricated by the compression-molding technique. The waveguides presented herein provide a feasible solution to bridge discrete optoelectronic devices having apertures of a few micrometers to hundreds of microns. 1-cm-long tapered channel waveguides with the end cross sections of 5 μm×5 μm and 100 μm×100 μm were fabricated. These waveguides have a propagation loss of 0.5 dB/cm when the 632.8-nm He-Ne laser light is coupled from the small end and of 1.1 dB/cm when coupled from the large end. By confining the energy to the fundamental mode, when coupling from large end to the small end, a low-loss packaging can be achieved bidirectionally     

Fabrication of polymeric large-core waveguides for opticalinterconnects using a rubber molding process

Polymeric large-core (47 μm×41 μm) optical waveguides for optical interconnects have been fabricated by using a rubber molding process. For low-cost low-loss large-core waveguides, our newly developed thick-photoresist patterning process is used for a master fabrication. Also a low-loss thermocurable polymer, perfluorocyclobutane (PFCB), is used in fabricating optical waveguides by rubber molding for the first time. The propagation loss is measured to be 0.4 dB/cm at the wavelength of 1.3 μm, and 0.7 dB/cm at the wavelength of 1.55 μm     

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     

Low-loss singlemode amorphous silicon waveguides

Amorphous silicon waveguides were obtained by plasma-enhanced chemical vapour deposition and anisotropic plasma etching. Rectangular multimode waveguides as well as singlemode ridge waveguides were fabricated. Scattered light measurements at 1550 nm (1300 nm) wavelength showed a low propagation loss of /spl les/0.5 dB/cm (1.6 dB/cm) for multimode waveguides and 2.0 dB/cm (5.0 dB/cm) for highly-confined singlemode waveguides.     

Conception of optical integrated circuits on polymers

The authors present a successful design, realisation and characterisation of single-mode TE₀₀-TM₀₀ rib optical waveguides composed of SU-8 polymer. For the simulation, a generic software package that provides an interactive and graphical environment for analysis by polarised Semi-Vectorial Finite Difference (SVFD) method of all kinds of integrated optical waveguides, such as buried channel, raised strip, rib, embedded, or ridge waveguides, has been implemented and tested. In this method we have taken into account the terms due to the interface between each layer. After realisation of various single mode optical waveguides on SU-8 polymer and Spin on Glass (SOG) like straight, S-bends, Y-junctions, Mach-Zehnder (MZ) interferometers, the linear absorption coefficient of energy α^TE-TM of such rib waveguides have been measured and estimated, respectively, near 0.32 and 0.46 cm⁻¹ for both optical modes TE₀₀ and TM₀₀ on Si/SiO₂/SU-8 structures. These values yield optical losses of 1.36 and 2.01 dB/cm. Optical losses ascribed to Si/SiO₂/SOG/SU-8 microstructures have been evaluated to 2.33 and 2.95 dB/cm for both polarisations. Hence, as a crucial step for designing polymer components devoted to microsensors applications (pressure, heat transfert), the SU-8 polymer appears as a promising candidate for integrated optics with low optical losses.