Polymer-silica hybrid 1 × 2 thermooptic switch with low crosstalk

A new polymer-silica hybrid 1 × 2 thermooptic switch with significantly low crosstalk is demonstrated. The top cladding and the core layers are composed of polymer, while the bottom cladding layer is made of silica. Since polymer and silica have algebraic signs of their thermooptic coefficients that are opposite to each other, the refractive index of the core changes in the opposite direction to that of the bottom cladding as the temperature is increased. Thus, switching operation is initially done through adiabatic mode evolution in the Y-branch, and then a heated waveguide arm in the Y-branch can enter into the optical cut-off region if the temperature is sufficiently high. Using this phenomenon, low crosstalk performance is achieved. The proposed device has a crosstalk of −35 dB, while most integrated-optic switches with a single stage have a relatively high crosstalk in the region of −20 dB. The switching power of the proposed device is about 70 mW.     

Fabrication and characterization of polymer thermo-optic switch based on mmi coupler

The 2 × 2 polymer thermo-optic switch based on MMI coupler is realized. This device is fabricated using standard fabrication techniques such as coating, photolithography, and dry etching. A crosstalk level of −36.2 dB is achieved at cross and bar states. A power consumption of 1.85 mW is applied to change the state of the switch from the cross to the bar state. A switching time of less than 0.7 ms is traced to change a state of the realized switch.     

Simulation and optimization of a polymer 2×2 multimode interference-Mach Zehnder interferometer electro-optic switch with push-pull electrodes

Structural model and design technique are proposed for a polymer 2×2 multimode interference-Mach Zehnder interferometer electro-optic (MMI-MZI EO) switch with push-pull electrodes. The electric field distribution is analyzed by the conformal transforming method and image method. To get the minimum mode loss and half-wave voltage, the parameters of the waveguide and electrodes are optimized, such as the core width, core thickness, buffer layer thickness, size of the MMI couplers and the modulating region, electrode thickness, electrode width, and electrode gap. Switching characteristics are analyzed, including the output power, crosstalk, and wavelength shift. Simulation results show that the half-wave voltage is 0.74 V, the optical 3 dB bandwidth is 12.66 GHz, and the crosstalk is less than −30 dB for the designed device.     

Crosstalk improvement of a thermo-optic polymer waveguide MZI-MMI switch

A 2 × 2 MZI-MMI switch based on thermo-optic effect with a ridge in the silicon substrate was proposed and the performance of switch was simulated. The main purpose behind this change in substrate layer is to localize the heating at a heated arm single mode waveguide and limit the increasing temperature at a second one. The switch performance of the device should be improved, compare to the usual one. Using finite difference beam propagation method (FD-BPM) and thermal computing simulation based on finite element method (FEM), the results clearly indicate that the MZI-MMI switch can satisfy −31 dB crosstalk at two states.     

Thermo-optic multimode interference switches with air and silicon trenches

A novel thermo-optic multimode interference (MMI) switch with air and silicon trenches was proposed, and the performance of the switch was simulated. In the design, one heating electrode is used to alter the refractive index at a spot image which changes the phase of this image to realize the switching function. The simulation results clearly indicate that the MMI switch can satisfy −39 dB crosstalk at two states. The electric power consumption for the MMI switch with these trenches is less than half of that of a conventional MMI switch.     

Simulation and optimization of a polymer directional coupler electro-optic switch with push-pull electrodes

Structural model and design technique are proposed for a polymer directional coupler electro-optic switch with rib waveguides and push-pull electrodes, of which the electric field distribution is analyzed by the conformal transforming method and image method. In order to get the minimum mode loss and the minimum switching voltage, the parameters of the waveguide and electrode are optimized, such as the core with, core thickness, buffer layer between the core and the electrode, coupling gap between the waveguides, electrode thickness, electrode width and electrode gap. Switching Characteristics are analyzed, which include the output power, insertion loss, and crosstalk. To realize normal switching function, the fabrication error, spectrum shift, and coupling loss between a single mode fiber (SMF) and the waveguide are discussed. Simulation results show that the coupling length is 3082 μm, push-pull switching voltage is 2.14 V, insertion loss is less than 1.17 dB, and crosstalk is less than −30 dB for the designed device.     

Polymer waveguide thermo-optic switches with −70 dB optical crosstalk

To reduce the crosstalk of the polymer waveguide optical switches, waveguide attenuators are integrated with the switch on the same substrate. The switch and attenuator shares a single connected electrode which is controlled by a single current source. Due to the simple structure of the integrated attenuator, the device length is reduced to 10 mm so as to provide low insertion loss of 0.8 and 1.1 dB for 1300 and 1550 nm, respectively. Further radiation of the remained optical signal on the switch-off branch is induced by the integrated attenuator so that the switching crosstalk is reduced to −70 dB with an applied electrical power of 200 mW. The low crosstalk is maintained for the environmental temperature range of −10 to 55 °C.     

Multichannel silicon WDM ring filters fabricated with DUV lithography

We have fabricated 9-channel silicon wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM) ring filters using 193 nm deep-ultraviolet (DUV) lithography and investigated the spectral properties of the ring filters by comparing the transmission spectra with and without an upper cladding. The average channel-spacing of the 9-channel WDM ring filter with a polymeric upper cladding is measured about 1.86 nm with the standard deviation of the channel-spacing about 0.34 nm. The channel crosstalk is about −30 dB, and the minimal drop loss is about 2 dB.     

Splitting-on-demand optical power splitters using multimode interference (MMI) waveguide with programmed modulations

Reconfigurable multi-channel optical power splitter is proposed and its optical properties are calculated. The device can dynamically reconfigure the number of splitting channels by providing programmed refractive index modulations on a multimode interference (MMI) waveguide. A reconfigurable 3-channel optical power splitter is designed to work as 1 × 1, 1 × 2 or 1 × 3 optical power splitter depending on the state of the heat electrodes using thermo-optic modulation, and the input light can be distributed to three output channels with sequential orders. The device can work in the whole C-band (1530-1565 nm) with extinction ratio better than −29.0 dB, excess loss better than −0.45 dB, imbalance better than 0.08 dB and polarization dependent loss (PDL) better than 0.14 dB. The design conception is scalable to a multi-channel splitting-on-demand optical power splitter which can divide input light to 1, 2, …, N output channels equally by using the 3-channel reconfigurable optical power splitter as a building block.     

Modify SRS-induced crosstalk with variety of fiber in SCM–WDM transmission links

In this paper, the SRS-induced crosstalk has been evaluated in a SCM–WDM communication links at different modulation frequencies and transmission lengths for variety of fiber. Results show that SRS-induced crosstalk dominates at low frequency. As the dispersion and effective area of fiber (A_eff) decreases, initially the crosstalk remains high and then it decreases with increase in modulation frequency. The present work shows that out of five different types of fiber, standard single mode fiber (SMF) has minimum crosstalk (−78 to −38) dB, (−55 to −33) dB and (−46 to −34) dB at modulation frequencies, transmission lengths and optical powers. Dispersion compensation fiber (DCF) has maximum crosstalk (−60 to −12) dB, (−37 to −12) dB and (−27 to −12) dB at modulation frequencies and transmission lengths.     

High birefringence and low loss circular air-holes photonic crystal fiber using complex unit cells in cladding

We propose a high birefringence and low loss index-guiding photonic crystal fiber (PCF) using the complex unit cells in cladding by the finite-element method. Results show that the birefringence and confinement loss in such PCF fiber is determined not only by the whole cladding asymmetry but also the shape of the PCF core. The maximal modal birefringence and lowest confinement loss of our proposed structures at the excitation wavelength of λ = 1550 nm can be achieved at 8.7 × 10⁻³ and 5.27 × 10⁻⁵ dB/km, respectively.     

A very short vertical directional coupler with polarization-insensitive high extinction ratios

We propose a very short vertical directional coupler with polarization-insensitive high extinction ratios. The structure of the coupler has two deep-ridge waveguide structures in the upper and lower parts which can be implemented using a double-sided wafer process. The coupling length and extinction ratios of the vertical directional coupler with symmetric structures decrease as the thicknesses of the inner cladding layer and core layer decrease. The extinction ratio is improved using a slight asymmetry in the refractive indices of two core layers. As the thicknesses of the inner cladding layer and core layer decrease, the length of the vertical directional coupler for extinction ratios greater than 30 dB of both TE and TM modes decreases. A vertical directional coupler with a very short length less than 100 μm and polarization-insensitive high extinction ratios greater than 30 dB can be implemented using the structure proposed in this paper.     

Performance evaluation of SCM-WDM communication in the presence of SRS induced crosstalk for different types of fiber

In this paper, the SRS-induced crosstalk has been evaluated in a SCM-WDM communication link at different modulation frequencies for various type of fibers. Results show that SRS-induced crosstalk dominates at low frequency. As the dispersion and effective area of fiber (A_eff) decreases, initially the crosstalk remains high and then it decreases with increase in modulation frequency. The present work shows that out of five different types of fibers, Standard Single Mode Fiber (SMF) has minimum crosstalk (−53 to −64 dB) and True Wave fiber (TW) has maximum crosstalk (−47 to −48 dB).     

New nonlinear and dispersion flattened photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss

A new nonlinear dispersion flattened photonic crystal fiber with low confinement loss is proposed. This fiber has threefold symmetry core. The doped region in the core and the big air-holes in the 1st ring can make high nonlinearity in the PCF. And the small air-holes in the 1st ring and the radial increasing diameters air-holes rings in cladding can be used to achieve the dispersion properties of the PCF. We can achieve the optimized optical properties by carefully selecting the PCFs structure parameters. A PCF with flattened dispersion is obtained. The dispersion is less than 0.8 ps/(nm km) and is larger than −0.7 ps/(nm km) from 1.515 μm to 1.622 μm. The nonlinear coefficient is about 12.6456 W⁻¹ km⁻¹, the fundamental mode area is about 10.2579 μm². The confinement loss is 0.30641 dB/km. This work may be useful for effective design and fabrication of dispersion flattened photonic crystal fibers with high nonlinearities.     

Analysis of polymer electro-optic microring resonator switches

The structure and the principle for the polymer electro-optic microring resonator (MRR) switch are proposed as well as the transfer functions. The structural parameters are optimized; the transmission characteristics are analyzed including the output power, switching time, switching voltage, insertion loss, and crosstalk. When the operation voltage is 0 V, the insertion loss and crosstalk are ∼1.2 and −20.2 dB, respectively; when the operation voltage is 10.0 V, those are ∼0.35 and −20.0 dB, respectively. Furthermore, a novel method is presented for analyzing time-domain response of the device and the switching time is determined to be ∼10.71 ps. These results indicate the favorable switching functions of the designed device.     

Wavelength-encoded fiber-optic temperature sensor with ultra-high sensitivity

We present in this paper a wavelength-encoded fiber-optic temperature sensor with ultra-high sensitivity. The sensor consists of a segment of multimode fiber (MMF) with a polymer cladding spliced between two single mode fibers, forming a multimode fiber interferometer. For a temperature sensor with a 55 mm long MMF and a 45 mm long polymer cladding, a temperature sensitivity of −3.195 nm/°C has been achieved over a temperature range of 10 °C which is mainly limited by the spectral range of the light source used in the experiments. It has been found that the high temperature sensitivity is mainly attributed to the high thermo-optic coefficient of the polymer cladding. Other advantages of the temperature sensor reported here include its extremely simple structure and fabrication process, and hence a very low cost.     

Temperature dependence of symmetric and asymmetric structured Au stripe waveguides

The thermal effects on pigtailed 22-nm-thick, 5-μm-wide and 1-cm-long Au stripe long-range surface plasmon polariton (LRSPP) waveguides, embedded in polymer/polymer layers and in polymer/silica layers, are theoretically and experimentally demonstrated. The polymer and silica cladding layers have thermo-optic coefficients of opposite signs. As the temperature varies the Au stripe LRSPP waveguide embedded in the polymer/polymer layers retains its symmetry in the refractive index, but that embedded in the polymer/silica layers becomes asymmetric in the refractive index. The thermal sensitivity in the optical output power of the symmetric structure is smaller than 0.02 dB/°C but the sensitivity of the asymmetric structure is ∼ 0.3 dB/°C. These structures open up potential applications of the LRSPP waveguides for temperature independent/dependent photonic devices.     

Design and fabrication of arrayed waveguide grating using fluoropolymer PFS-co-GMA

A 33×33 polymer arrayed waveguide grating (AWG) multiplexer is optimized and fabricated. This device is made of polymeric materials named 2,3,4,5,6-pentafluorostyrene-co-glycidylmethacrylate (PFS-co-GMA). The central wavelength and wavelength spacing are designed to be 1550.918 and 0.8 nm, respectively. The calculated results are: the 3-dB bandwidth is about 0.24 nm, insertion loss is about 8.4 dB and crosstalk is −33.7 dB. The corresponding measured results are: the center wavelength is about 1550.85 nm, wavelength channel spacing is about 0.81 nm, 3-dB bandwidth is about 0.35 nm, crosstalk is about −20 dB, insertion loss is between 10.4 dB for the central port and 11.9 dB for the edge ports.     

Short-length and broadband mismatched optical couplers with tapered Hamming function for C- and L-band

Mismatched optical couplers with variable widths of waveguide tapered by Hamming function are numerically investigated in the demand of short-length, broadband, and low crosstalk. We used global search algorithm and beam propagation method to seek optimal structure parameters of coupling waveguide. The coupler length is 3.6 mm within the C+L-band (1.53-1.61 μm) for variable widths of waveguide at crosstalk level of −35 dB. Comparison with constant width of waveguide, the constant width of waveguide has a coupler length of 4.4 mm and can only achieve −20 dB of crosstalk within the C-band (1.53-1.565 μm). Obviously, the waveguide with variable widths has the advantage over constant width for the demand of short-length, bandwidth, and low-crosstalk.