Design for beam splitting components employing silicon-on-insulator rib waveguide structures

We present a new design for beam splitting components employing a silicon-on-insulator rib waveguide structures. In the new design, a high-index thin-film layer is deposited in the rib section to reduce the wave field dispersive tails in the slab section and accordingly render the mode field a confined spot. This in turn improves the beam splitting performance of some conventional waveguide components such as y branches and multimode interference couplers (MMICs), in terms of the excess loss, fiber coupling loss, and compactness of these components. For a 1 x 2 y-branch beam splitter, the excess loss can be as small as 0.43 dB in the new design, which is much lower than that for a conventional rib waveguide structure (which is 1.28 dB). For a 1 x 2 MMIC in our example, the new rib waveguide structure presents an excess loss of 0.064 dB for the TE mode and 0.046 dB for the TM mode, with negligible nonuniformity in dimensions of 30 microm x 1040 microm, whereas its counterpart (i.e., the one with the same dimensions but without a thin-film layer) presents an excess loss of approximately 0.86 dB for both modes. A conventional MMIC must have dimensions larger than 70 microm x 5650 microm to maintain almost the same low excess loss.     

Design and analysis of a vertical directional coupler between a three-dimensional plasmonic slot waveguide and a silicon waveguide

The design of a vertical directional coupler between a three-dimensional plasmonic slot waveguide and a silicon waveguide is theoretically investigated in detail. It consists of two steps: the design of isolated plasmonic slot waveguide and silicon waveguide and the determination of the gap between the two waveguides and the length of a coupling region. The designed structure transfers 70.8% of the power carried by the silicon waveguide mode to the plasmonic slot waveguide mode when the gap is 150 nm and the coupling length is 2.14 μm. The wavelength dependence of our vertical directional coupler is also studied. The analysis shows that the amount of the transferred power changes slightly over a very wide wavelength range between 1.40 μm and 1.61 μm. Moreover, if we employ the fabrication technology for silicon photonics, it is quite tolerant to the variation of the length of its coupling section. Finally, the vertical directional coupler is considered for a polarizer.     

用于折射率传感的聚合物基狭缝波导的模拟与制备

设计了在极近红外波段(890 nm)的聚合物基狭缝波导微环折射率传感器.分析了波导高度、宽度及狭缝宽度对灵敏度的影响,以找到最佳的设计标准用于折射率传感.采用电子束光刻工艺制备了硅母版模,并用独特的氟化聚合物PFPE从硅母版模上成功制备了柔性软模具.采用紫外软压印工艺制备了聚合物基狭缝波导.波导的宽度和高度以及狭缝波导的宽度分别约为510 nm、830 nm和234 nm,聚合物狭缝波导残留层的厚度约为350 nm.制备的狭缝波导具有高的高宽比并与低成本批量生产工艺相兼容.     

Integration of electro-optic polymer modulators with low-loss fluorinated polymer waveguides

We have demonstrated a hybrid Mach-Zehnder optical modulator consisting of a large-core, low-loss fluorinated passive polymer waveguide and an electro-optic (EO) polymer waveguide. The combination exhibits low fiber coupling loss to the passive waveguide and reduced transmission loss because the EO polymer waveguide is used only in the active region. The two waveguides are connected by vertical tapers that permit low-loss adiabatic coupling between the two modes. The half-wave voltage and the insertion loss of the fabricated modulator are 3.6 V and 6 dB, respectively, at a wavelength of 1.55 microm . The estimated coupling loss with the standard single-mode fiber is ~0.5 dB.     

High-performance and fabrication friendly polarization demultiplexer

A compact and fabrication friendly polarization demultiplexer (P-DEMUX) is proposed and characterized to enable wavelength-division-multiplexing and polarization-division-multiplexing simultaneously. The proposed structure is composed of a polarization-selective microring resonator in ultrathin waveguide and two bus channels in the silicon nitride-silica-silicon horizontal slot waveguides. In the slot waveguide, the transverse electric (TE) mode propagates through the silicon layer, while the transverse magnetic (TM) mode is confined in the slot region. In the designed ultra-thin waveguide, the TM mode is cut-off. The effective indexes of the TE modes for ultrathin and slot waveguides have comparable values. Thanks for these distinguishing features, the input TE mode can be efficiently filtered through the ultra-thin microring at the resonant wavelength, while the TM mode can directly output from the through port. Simulation results show that the extinction ratio of the proposed P-DEMUX for TE and TM modes are 33.21 dB and 24.97 dB, and the insertion losses are 0.346 dB and 0.324 dB, respectively, at the wavelength of 1551.64 nm. Furthermore, the device shows a broad bandwidth ($>100$ nm) for an extinction ratio (ER) of $>20$ dB. In addition, the proposed P-DEMUX also has a good fabrication tolerance for the waveguide width variation of $-20$ nm$\le \Delta w_{\rm g}\le 20$ nm and the microring width variation of $-20$ nm$\le \Delta w_{\rm r}\le $20 nm for a low insertion loss of $<0.75$ dB and low ER of $<-18$ dB.     

Efficient coupler between chip-level and board-level optical waveguides

We propose an efficient optical coupler between a submicrometer-sized silicon waveguide on a silicon photonic chip and a multi-micrometer wide polymer waveguide on an optical printed circuit board for interchip optical networks. We show low coupling loss <0.4 dB with high lateral and angular tolerance to misalignment so that coupling can be done by automatic pick-and-place equipments with high throughput and low cost. The coupler has a wide optical bandwidth from 1470 to 1650 nm.     

Optical field enhancement in nanoscale slot waveguides of hyperbolic metamaterials

Nanoscale slot waveguides of hyperbolic metamaterials are proposed and demonstrated for achieving large optical field enhancement. The dependence of the enhanced electric field within the air slot on waveguide mode coupling and permittivity tensors of hyperbolic metamaterials is analyzed both numerically and analytically. Optical intensity in the metamaterial slot waveguide can be more than 25 times stronger than that in a conventional silicon slot waveguide, due to tight optical mode confinement enabled by the ultrahigh refractive indices supported in hyperbolic metamaterials. The electric field enhancement effects are also verified with the realistic metal-dielectric multilayer waveguide structure.     

Efficient design of silicon slot waveguide optical modulator

An optimal design of a slot waveguide is presented for realizing an ultrafast optical modulator based on a 220 nm silicon wafer technology. The recipe is to maximize the confinement and interaction between optical power supported by the waveguide and electric field applied through metallic electrodes. As height of waveguide is fixed at 220 nm, the waveguide and slot width are optimized to maximize the confinement factor of optical power. Moreover, metal electrodes tend to make the waveguide lossy, their optimal placement is calculated to reduce the optical loss and enhance the voltage per unit width in the slot. Performance of an optimally designed slot waveguide with metal electrodes as ultrafast modulator is also discussed.     

Plasmon mode transformation in modulated-index metal-dielectric slot waveguides

The concept of adiabatic mode transformation between silicon waveguide and surface plasmon-polariton modes in subwavelength metal-dielectric slots is investigated. The mode transformer consists of a modulated-index slot region, which is bound by two metal slabs. Using the design scheme, we will show that the optical dispersion of a modulated-index metal slot waveguide can be engineered well above the silicon light-line on a large wavelength region, allowing direct phase-matching between surface plasmon polaritons and traditional waveguide modes. Based on full-field, finite difference simulations, we demonstrate that reversible mode conversion can be achieved within submicrometer length scales.     

Low-loss subwavelength metal C-aperture waveguide

We present a design of a linear optical waveguide that utilizes a C-shaped metallic nano-aperture that efficiently transports light while maintaining a spot size of lambda/10. The performance of a C-aperture waveguide is superior to both a regular ridge waveguide and other surface plasmon based metal nano-optical waveguides. The energy transport mechanisms are explained by the coupling of an aperture surface resonance and the thickness resonances inside the guide channel. Finite-difference time-domain simulations of gold C-aperture waveguides are performed for a 1.5 microm wavelength incident plane wave. The 1/e decay length in power transmission is predicted to be approximately 2.5 microm. The total power throughput is 1.66 for the 2.55 microm long guide, with an intensity 6 times that of the incident wave at a distance 120 nm from the exit plane, having a spot size of 150 nm.     

多孔硅通道型光波导的制备及传输损耗的测量

利用多孔硅在阳极腐蚀过程中外加的光照度与孔隙率的对应关系,提出了一种利用光照控制多孔硅折射率的方法制备通道型光波导技术.对制备出的多孔硅波导损耗进行了分析.由于多孔硅波导层中孔状结使得波导端面较为粗糙,耦合损耗大是多孔硅光波导传输损耗测量中遇到的的问题,对此采用了一种非破坏性的简便的优化端面耦合传输损耗测量方法,可以实现入射光束与波导的完全耦合,消除了因光波与波导中导波模式间失配引起的损耗.较精确的测量出实验中制备的通道型多孔硅光波导的传输损耗为16.2dBcm,波导端面的散射损耗为3.6dB.     

Design for broadband high-efficiency grating couplers

In this Letter, we propose general optimization methods to design broadband high-efficiency grating couplers for planar waveguides. We attribute the coupling bandwidth to the mismatch of effective indices between the diffracted beam and the actual grating structure around the operation wavelength for fiber to waveguide excitation. The coupling bandwidth formula is deduced. A simple parameter-separate optimization procedure is proposed for general layered grating couplers for high coupling efficiency. Using our principle, we optimized a grating coupler for a horizontal slot waveguide operating at wavelength 1.55 μm for TM polarization. The grating coupler has 1 dB bandwidth of 60 nm and coupling efficiency of 65% with incident light from single-mode optical fiber (SMF) at 8°.     

Stratified waveguide grating coupler for normal fiber incidence

We propose a new stratified waveguide grating coupler (SWGC) to couple light from a fiber at normal incidence into a planar waveguide. SWGCs are designed to operate in the strong coupling regime without intermediate optics between the fiber and the waveguide. Two-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulation in conjunction with microgenetic algorithm optimization shows that approximately 72% coupling efficiency is possible for fiber (core size of 8.3 microm and delta=0.36%) to slab waveguide (1.2-microm core and delta=3.1%) coupling. We show that the phase-matching and Bragg conditions are simultaneously satisfied through the fundamental leaky mode.     

Low-loss, compact waveguiding with TE mode in metal/dielectric waveguides for planar lightwave circuit

We propose a low-loss metal/dielectric waveguide for compact planar lightwave circuit. The basic waveguide structure is a metal-defined high-index-contrast strip waveguide based on silicon/silica. As the guide is designed for TE single mode waveguiding, extremely low propagation loss (e.g. <0.04 dB/cm), very low bend loss (e.g. 0.0043 dB/90°-turn) and small waveguide pitch of zero-crosstalk are theoretically achievable, and can be further improved by compromising with component size and density. Examples of multi-bends and device integration are demonstrated with numerical simulations. The proposal is compatible with silicon technology and appealing for development of silicon-based planar lightwave circuit.     

Spiral-path high-sensitivity silicon photonic wire molecular sensor with temperature-independent response

We demonstrate a new silicon photonic wire waveguide evanescent field (PWEF) sensor that exploits the strong evanescent field of the transverse magnetic mode of this high-index-contrast, submicrometer-dimension waveguide. High sensitivity is achieved by using a 2 mm long double-spiral waveguide structure that fits within a compact circular area of 150 microm diameter, facilitating compatibility with commercial spotting apparatus and the fabrication of densely spaced sensor arrays. By incorporating the PWEF sensor element into a balanced waveguide Mach-Zehnder interferometer circuit, a minimum detectable mass of approximately 10 fg of streptavidin protein is demonstrated with near temperature-independent response.     

Vertical coupling characteristics between hybrid plasmonic slot waveguide and Si waveguide

For development of complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS)-compatible integrated optical circuits, vertical directional coupling between a hybrid plasmonic slot waveguide and a Si waveguide is theoretically investigated in detail. To determine the vertical separation gap and efficient coupling length, we investigate the characteristics of the even and odd supermodes at a wavelength of 1.55 μm. The vertical coupler transfers 90% of the power carried by the Si waveguide to the hybrid plasmonic slot waveguide after normalizing to reference waveguides when the gap is 60 nm and the coupling length is 2.6 μm. Because of the lossy hybrid guided mode in the plasmonic waveguide, the transmitted power exhibits damped sinusoidal behavior depending on the overlapping length. The proposed vertical coupler shows more efficient light coupling between a dielectric and plasmonic waveguide in comparison to the other types of hybrid coupler, and can be exploited further for on-chip integrated opto-electronic circuits.     

Coupled-mode theory of the Raman effect in silicon-on-insulator waveguides

Coupled-mode theory is used to calculate Raman gain and spontaneous efficiency in silicon waveguides with cross-sectional areas ranging from 0.16 to 16 microm2. We find a monotonic increase in the Raman gain as the waveguide cross section decreases for the range of dimensions considered. It is also found that mode coupling between the Stokes modes is insignificant, and thus polarization multiplexing is possible. The results also demonstrate that for submicrometer waveguide dimensions the Einstein relation between spontaneous efficiency and stimulated gain no longer holds.     

基于超材料的吸波体设计及其波导缝隙天线应用

设计了一种基于超材料电磁特性的吸波体, 并将其应用于波导缝隙天线. 该吸波体是由两层金属及其中间的有耗介质组成, 上层金属是由刻蚀交叉缝隙的贴片形成的电谐振器, 下层金属不刻蚀, 作为整个金属地板. 通过优化结构参数, 得到了一种极化不敏感、宽入射角的超薄吸波体, 吸波率达到99.1%, 厚度只有约0.01λ. 将该吸波体应用与波导缝隙天线, 在5.48-5.7 GHz工作频段内, 天线雷达散射截面减缩都在3 dB以上, 在鼻锥方向的-25°-+25°范围的角度上, 天线雷达散射截面减缩均在5 dB以上, 雷达散射截面减缩最大超过12 dB, 而天线前向增益仅降低了0.53 dB. 实验结果与仿真结果符合得较好, 证实了该吸波体具有好的天线雷达散射截面减缩效果, 可以应用于天线目标的隐身.     

Optical amplification in Er/Yb silicate slot waveguide

Active slot waveguides were fabricated by embedding low-index Er/Yb silicate material in high-index silicon. A 1.7 dB signal enhancement at 1.53 μm in a 6 mm-long slot waveguide was observed through 1476 nm pumping. The peak Er emission cross-section is determined as 7.53×10(-21) cm2 and the excited Er ion fraction is 0.17. Our experiment shows that the defects in upper c-Si of Si-on-insulator (SOI) and deposited α-Si distorts photoluminescence spectrum and prevents further optical amplification. This negative effect can be partly corrected through annealing treatment, which allows better propagation of the pump light, therefore, stronger excitation in the sandwiched Er/Yb silicate. The defects also affect the 1.53 μm decay curve and are the dominant lifetime reduction mechanism in the active slot waveguide.