Design of novel SOI 1 × 4 optical power splitter using seven horizontally slotted waveguides

Abstract

In this paper, we demonstrate a compact silicon on insulator (SOI) 1×4 optical power splitter using seven horizontal slotted waveguides. Aluminum nitride (AIN) surrounded by silicon (Si) was used to confine the optical field in the slot region. All of the power analysis has been done in transverse magnetic (TM) polarization mode and a compact optical power splitter as short as 14.5μm was demonstrated. The splitter was designed by using full vectorial beam propagation method (FV-BPM) simulations. Numerical investigations show that this device can work across the whole C-band (1530–1565nm) with excess loss better than 0.23dB.