Abstract
In this work, a photonic device integration platform capable of integration of active-passive InP-based photonic devices without the use of material regrowth is introduced. The platform makes use of an adiabatic active-layer waveguide connection (ALWC) to move an optical beam between active and passive devices. The performance of this platform is analyzed using an example made up of four main sections: (1) a fiber coupling section for enabling vertical beam coupling from optical fiber into the photonic chip using a mode-matched surface grating with apodized duty cycles; (2) a transparent waveguide section for realizing passive photonic devices; (3) an adiabatic mode connection structure for moving the optical beam between passive and active device sections; and (4) an active device section for realizing active photonic devices. It is shown that the coupled surface grating, when added with a bottom gold reflector, can achieve a high chip-to-fiber coupling efficiency (CE) of 88.3% at 1550 nm. The adiabatic active-layer mode connection structure has an optical loss of lower than 1% (CE > 99%). The active device section can achieve an optical gain of 20 dB/mm with the use of only 3 quantum wells. The optimized structural parameters of the entire waveguide module are analyzed and discussed.
Highlights
The III-V semiconductor-based photonic integrated circuits are playing key roles in optical communication systems [1,2,3,4,5]
We explore an active-passive photonic device integration approach motivated by the “heterogeneous integration method” mentioned above in terms of an active-passive device connection and optical fiber coupling but as a purely InP-based integration platform
We refer to the platform we introduce here as the adiabatic active-layer waveguide connection (ALWC)-based active-passive photonic device integration method to distinguish it from the vertical twin-guide method of previous works
Summary
The III-V semiconductor-based photonic integrated circuits are playing key roles in optical communication systems [1,2,3,4,5]. In Section B (passive waveguide device), the light beam from Section A is propagated into a 4-μm wide, 500-nm thick InGaAsP passive waveguide core In this region, the material under this 500-nm thick InGaAsP layer has InP material as the lower cladding (i.e., not polymer). In Section C (active-passive waveguide connection), the beam is made to slowly connect into an active gain material region through the use of an adiabatic taper structure on top of the 500-nm thick InGaAsP layer (with the bandgap wavelength at 1.25 μm), which is the 4-μm wide connecting channel waveguide from Section B. We describe each of the sections (A–D) in more detail
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