Comparative Studies of Rib Waveguide Material for Quantum Communication Application

Abstract

Recently, the needs to achieve a very high traffic capacity and superfast quantum computing led to advancement in optical waveguide technology. The selection of material with a high refractive index and transparent within the telecommunication wavelength range are crucially needed to achieve these. In this paper, the performance of two promising quantum materials, Silicon on Insulator (SOI) and Lithium Niobate on Insulator (LNOI) rib waveguide were studied. The mode analysis was conducted by using a finite element method to observe the confinement electromagnetic wave across rib waveguide. Apart from the variation of a material index, the width and height of core were optimized to achieve single mode propagation at the wavelength of 1550 nm. Based on the simulation work, it is shown that both material structures were able to produce single mode propagation with SOI showing higher confinement compared to the LNOI rib waveguide structure. LNOI structure was able to provide wide range of propagation signal wavelength.