New design of a beam-steering thermooptic multimode polymer waveguide switch

Abstract

We present simulations of a Y-branch directional coupler activated using the thermooptic effect in a multimode polymer waveguide. Microheaters embedded beneath both sides of the waveguide at the Y-branch are used to generate an inhomogeneous temperature profile. Through the thermooptic effect, this temperature profile creates a refractive index profile in the channel waveguide material, which steers the beam to one of the two output branches. We determined the expected thermal profiles using finite element modeling (FEM). The transmission of a basic mode through the waveguide was then simulated using the beam propagation method (BPM). The results show that a high contrast ratio (>90%) can be achieved in response times on the order of 1 ms.