Polygonal Maxwell’s fisheye lens via transformation optics as multimode waveguide crossing

Abstract

Multimode waveguide crossings are crucial components for novel mode-division-multiplexing systems. One of the challenges of multimode waveguide routing in MDM systems is decreasing the inter-mode crosstalk and mode leakage of waveguide crossings. In this work, we present the intersections of three and four waveguides based on polygonal Maxwell’s fisheye lens via transformation optics. The designed lenses are implemented by mapping their refractive index to the thickness of guiding Si layer. The three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations are used to evaluate the performance of the proposed 3 × 3 and 4 × 4 crossings. The footprint of the 3 × 3 and 4 × 4 waveguide star crossings are 18.6 × 18.6 and 27.5 × 27.5 μm2, respectively. For both waveguide crossings, the intermodal crosstalk in the output port is lower than −22 dB while the crosstalk to other ports is lower than −37 dB for TE0, TE1, and TE2 modes. The insertion losses for these modes are lower than 0.5 dB in a bandwidth of 415 nm covering the whole optical telecommunication bands.