Mach-Zehnder interferometer employing coupled-resonator optical waveguides

A simple theoretical model of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) consisting of two coupled-resonator optical waveguides with different lengths is proposed and experimentally demonstrated at microwave frequencies. Good agreement between theoretical and experimental results is observed. MZIs in planar photonic crystals may become key building blocks in the development of microscale optical integrated devices such as filters, demultiplexers, switches, and modulators.     

Dispersion characteristics of coupled-resonator optical waveguides

A tight-binding optical waveguide formed by proximity coupling of nearest-neighbor resonators, e.g., a coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW), has distinct wave and pulse propagation characteristics compared with a conventional waveguide, and several applications in photonic devices have been proposed recently. But analysis of the dispersion, and in particular the group-velocity dispersion, in such a waveguide requires particular attention: the waveguide displays two distinct regimes of operation, depending on the position of the wave packet in the dispersion relationship.     

微环耦合谐振光波导中的色散控制模型与数值仿真

本文利用传输矩阵法得到了微环耦合谐振光波导的色散关系,讨论了耦合损耗、传输损耗及耦合系数对微环耦合谐振光波导色散的影响,改变耦合损耗、传输损耗及耦合系数可控制其色散曲线的形状、位置、以及带宽,色散曲线的变化及控制对微环耦合谐振光波导在滤波、光信号延迟及缓存等方面的应用有重要意义. 关键词： 光波导 微环光波导 传输矩阵法     

Continuously tunable 1 byte delay in coupled-resonator optical waveguides

A reconfigurable coupled-resonator optical waveguide made of a few directly coupled ring resonators is employed to control the delay of data streams modulated at tens of gigabits per second. A delay of 8 bit lengths (1 optical byte) with a small pulse broadening and 1 dB/bit fractional loss is achieved by using only eight rings. The limiting role of waveguide loss and spurious backreflections is experimentally investigated. The high storage efficiency (1 bit/ring) of the device enables an easy, reliable, hitless, and relatively low-power-consuming management of the delay. A higher storage efficiency is demonstrated to be associated to an unavoidable higher pulse distortion.     

Low-power continuous-wave four-wave mixing in silicon coupled-resonator optical waveguides

We demonstrate four-wave mixing in silicon-on-insulator coupled-resonator optical waveguides consisting of 35 and 65 microring resonators, using a cw pump with coupled power below 20 mW and observed parametric conversion across more than 10 THz. The conversion efficiency is enhanced by +16 dB relative to a silicon straight waveguide of equivalent length, due to the slowing factor of the coupled-resonator structure.     

Systematic design of single-mode coupled-resonator optical waveguides in photonic crystals

By establishing a direct relation between the dispersion and the field profile of a coupled-resonator optical waveguide (CROW) and those of its constituent cavities, we present a systematic method for the design of a single-mode CROW and for control of its dispersion. The procedure includes the design of a single-mode cavity and control of its frequency by engineering its structure. Then, by chaining these cavities in the proper direction and at an appropriate distance, we achieve the desired dispersion for the CROW.     

Transmission and group delay of microring coupled-resonator optical waveguides

We measured the transmission and group delay of microring coupled-resonator optical waveguides (CROWs). The CROWs consisted of 12 weakly coupled, microring resonators fabricated in optical polymers (PMMA on Cytop). The intrinsic quality factor of the resonators was 18,000 and the interresonator coupling was 1%, resulting in a delay of 110-140 ps and a slowing factor of 23-29 over a 17 GHz bandwidth.     

Optical soliton with group delay in microring coupled-resonator optical waveguides

This paper derives the dispersion relation of microring coupled-resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) without any approximation by using the transfer matrix method. Based on the established dispersion relation of CROWs it obtains the slow group velocity and dispersion coefficient. It finds that the effect of dispersion on optical pulses can be adjusted to balance the effect of nonlinearity by changing coupling coefficient or loss, so optical soliton with group delay can be obtained in microring CROWs. The optical soliton with group delay is of great significance for applications of microring CROWs in delay lines and optical buffers of future all-optical communication systems.     

Propagation in a directional coupler of parallel microring coupled-resonator optical waveguides

The fundamental concept of coupled-resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) is for the first time taken a step farther to propose the more complicated case of coupled-resonator directional couplers, by analyzing the phenomenon of propagation in two parallel chains of microring resonators. Using the method of transfer matrices it is shown that the infinite coupler supports even and odd supermodes that satisfy frequency-shifted replicas of the familiar CROW dispersion equation as well as modified periodic Floquet conditions. Depending on the relative coupling strengths between neighboring resonators in the same chain and between the two chains, the frequency bands of the supermodes can overlap or be completely separated, resulting, in the latter case, to a complete bandgap around the central resonance frequency of the microrings. Three frequency windows, corresponding to totally different properties of directional coupling, are defined through this band-overlap mechanism along the increased total bandwidth of the coupler. These predictions are fully confirmed in the response of the realistic finite-length version of the considered coupler which is also analyzed.     

Leaky modes in optical waveguides

Solutions of the scalar wave equation are presented giving, explicitly, the excitation and subsequent attenuation of leaky modes in optical waveguides.     

光脉冲在微环耦合谐振光波导中传输线性特性的数值仿真

利用传输矩阵法得到了微环耦合谐振光波导色散关系的一般表达式,并由色散关系出发讨论了光脉冲在微环耦合谐振光波导中传输时的线性特性,包括带宽、群速度、色散和线性相位变化,这些特性对微环耦合谐振光波导在光通信和光传感领域的应用有重要意义. 关键词： 微环光波导 光脉冲线性特性 传输矩阵法 数值仿真     

光子晶体耦合腔波导的色散特性

理论研究表明，在基于光子晶体的耦合腔波导中，杂质带的色散性质取决于相邻缺陷间局域电磁场的特性，而非缺陷间距离的大小.在第一布里渊区中出现的杂质带的反常色散实际上是能带折叠的结果.通过计算结构的有效折射率，证实了杂质带色散是正常色散. 关键词： 光子晶体 反常色散 耦合腔 杂质带     

"Ideal" optical delay lines based on tailored-coupling and reflecting, coupled-resonator optical waveguides

We present a design of "ideal" optical delay lines (i.e., constant amplitude and constant group delay over the desired bandwidth). They are based on reflection from coupled-resonator optical waveguides (CROWs). The inter-resonator coupling coefficients are tailored and decrease monotonically with the distance from the input to realize all-pass Bessel filters. The tailored coupling coefficients result in a frequency-dependent propagating distance which compensates for the group velocity dispersion of CROWs. We present a simple formalism for deriving the time-domain coupling coefficients and convert these coefficients to field coupling coefficients of ring resonators. The reflecting CROWs possess a delay-bandwidth product of 0.5 per resonator, larger than that of any kind of transmitting CROW. In the presence of uniform gain, the gain enhanced by slow light propagation and the constant group delay result in efficient and dispersion-free amplifiers.     

Analysis of adiabatic coupling between photonic crystal single-line-defect and coupled-resonator optical waveguides

A detailed analysis of adiabatic coupling between conventional photonic crystal single-line-defect and coupled-resonator optical waveguides is reported. Adiabatic coupling by progressive variation of the radii of the spacing defects between cavities is investigated. Flat transmission spectra with coupling efficiencies greater than 90% are achieved in a broad frequency range with short coupling lengths. Moreover, we find that flat transmission at low frequencies requires longer coupling lengths partly because the requirements imposed for adiabatic transmission in photonic crystals are violated.     

Tunnelling leaky modes on optical waveguides

The lossless dielectric waveguide of circular cross section with an index of refraction greater than its surround supports trapped modes in addition to two subclasses of leaky modes: refracting and tunnelling modes. Refracting modes leak because their fields are formed by waves that undergo refraction at the core-cladding interface. Tunnelling modes leak because their fields are formed by waves that undergo a form of electromagnetic tunnelling at the core-cladding interface due to the curvature of its cross section. Tunnelling modes have a very slow leakage compared to refracting modes and are therefore important for the understanding of propagation in multimode, optical waveguides of circular cross section.     

Rays,modes and beams in optical fibre waveguides

The global properties of modal ray fields and the local properties of source-excited ray fields are discussed within the context of propagation in optical fibres. The importance of bounded beams is stressed for unambiguous determination of local energy transport, reflection, refraction and tunnelling.     

Critical ray-like propagation modes along graded-index planar optical waveguides

Graded-index planar optical waveguides and surface compression layers were formed simultaneously in the surface layer of glass plates by ion exchange. A change in the refractometer patterns was observed. Before ion exchange, only a critical ray fringe was observed, but with ion exchange a guided wave fringe appeared on the high effective refractive index side of the ‘critical ray’ fringe, and the number of guided wave fringes increased. The guided wave fringe or fringes were birefringent, whereas the ‘critical ray’ fringe was kept nonbirefringent. It was concluded that the ‘critical ray’ propagated along the bottom of a waveguide, ie at the foot of the refractive index distribution.     

Nonlinear dispersion in a coupled-resonator optical waveguide

The propagation of an optical pulse in a coupled-resonator optical waveguide may be calculated nonperturbatively to all orders of dispersion, in the conventional tight-binding approximation, even though the dispersion relationship is nonlinear. Working in this framework, we discuss limits of the physical parameters and approximations to the exact formulation that highlight the conditions under which pulse distortion can be minimized. The results are fundamental to the design of coupled-resonator optical waveguides and are also relevant to other applications of the tight-binding method.     

Group velocity of modes and pulse distortion in dielectric optical waveguides

After a brief summary of the main factors causing pulse distortion in optical fibres, expressions are derived for phase velocity, group velocity and dispersion, that is velocity variation with frequency, of each mode. The analysis is carried out by making extensive use of the functiony(x) (y andx being the arguments of the first and second kind Bessel functions that appear in the solutions of Maxwell equations), that we call characteristic function. By using this function we obtain particularly simple and compact formulas that make easier the analysis of the behaviour of velocity and dispersion near and far from cut-off. It will also be seen that the ratio between the power propagating in the core,W ₁, and the power in the cladding,W ₂, for each mode takes a very simple form if expressed by means of the characteristic function: this fact permits a direct relation to be found between group velocity and power flow in an optical fibre. The study of the ratioW ₁/W ₂ will show that, contrary to expectation, for some modes, a substantial fraction of energy travels inside the core, even near cut-off. Expressions are given forW ₁/W ₂ at cut-off, and far from cut-off. Plots of velocity and dispersion are shown. On the grounds of the obtained results pulse distortion in optical fibres is discussed.