Bragg Filters Research Articles

Pressure effect on acoustical overtones in cubic Indium Antimonide

The influence of pressure on the light scattering properties of low-energy acoustical phonons in cubic Indium Antimonide (InSb) has been investigated by Raman spectroscopy. By implementing optical Bragg filters, the overtone scattering from transverse acoustical phonons near the X point of Brillouin zone (2TA(X)) could be measured in an explicit manner allowing for analysis of its lineshape. Accordingly, a significant line broadening was detected for this phonon mode corroborating our previous suggestion of considerable anharmonicity of the transverse lattice vibration upon compression at room temperature. Herein reported new results of density functional theory (DFT) calculations indicated similar pressure dependence for overtones of acoustical phonons near the X and the K critical points that plausibly accounted for the lack of energy discrimination between 2TA(X) and 2TA(K) modes in spectroscopic measurements under pressure.

Reversible Laser Imprinting of Phase Change Photonic Structures in Integrated Waveguides.

Formation of laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) is known as a fast and robust method of functionalization of material surfaces. Of particular interest are LIPSS that manifest as periodic modulation of phase state of the material, as it implies reversibility of phase modification that constitute rewritable LIPSS, and recently was demonstrated for chalcogenide phase change materials (PCMs). Due to remarkable properties of chalcogenide PCMs─nonvolatality, prominent optical contrast and ns switching speed─such novel phase change LIPSS hold potential for exciting applications in all-optical tunable photonics. In this work we explore phase change LIPSS formation in thin films of Ge2Sb2Te5 (GST) integrated with planar and rib waveguides. We demonstrate that by fine-tuning laser radiation, the morphology of phase change LIPSS can be controlled, including their period and fill factor, and investigate the limitations of multicycle rewriting of the structures. We also demonstrate the formation of phase change LIPSS on a 1D waveguide, which has potential for use as tunable Bragg filters or structures for on-demand light decoupling into the far-field. The presented concept of applying phase change LIPSS offers a promising approach to enable fast and simple tuning in integrated photonic devices.

Dual-polarization pump rejection filter in silicon nitride technology.

On-chip pump rejection filters are key building blocks in a variety of applications exploiting nonlinear phenomena, including Raman spectroscopy and photon-pair generation. Ultrahigh rejection has been achieved in the silicon technology by non-coherent cascading of modal-engineered Bragg filters. However, this concept cannot be directly applied to silicon nitride waveguides as the comparatively lower index contrast hampers the suppression of residual light propagating in the orthogonal polarization, limiting the achievable rejection. Here, we propose and demonstrate a novel, to the best of our knowledge, strategy to overcome this limitation based on non-coherent cascading of the modal- and polarization-engineered Bragg filters. Based on this concept, we experimentally demonstrate a rejection exceeding 60 dB for both polarizations, with a bandwidth of 4.4 nm. This is the largest rejection reported for silicon nitride Bragg gratings supporting both polarizations.

On-chip ultra-high rejection and narrow bandwidth filter based on coherency-broken cascaded cladding-modulated gratings

Bragg filters are of essential importance for chip-scale photonic systems. However, the implementation of filters with sub-nanometer bandwidth and rejection beyond 70 dB is hindered by the high index contrast of the silicon-on-insulator platform, which makes filters prone to fabrication imperfections. In this paper, we propose to combine coherency-broken cascading architecture and cladding modulation to circumvent the intrinsic limitation. The cascading architecture effectively prevents the accumulation of phase errors, while the cladding modulation offers additional design freedom to reduce the coupling coefficient. A bimodal Bragg filter with a testing-equipment-limited rejection level of 74 dB and a 40 dB bandwidth of 0.44 nm is experimentally demonstrated. The minimum feature size is 90 nm, which significantly relieves the fabrication constraints.

High-performance plasmonic mid-infrared bandpass filters by inverse design.

Plasmonic spectral filters composed of periodic nanostructured metal films offer novel opportunities for the development of multispectral imaging technologies in the mid-infrared region. However, traditional plasmonic filters, which typically feature simplistic structures such as nanoholes or nanorings, are constrained by a narrow bandpass and significant crosstalk, leading to limited practical performance. Filters designed using inverse techniques allow a substantial degree of freedom in creating intricate structures that align with desired spectral characteristics, including a quasi-square spectral profile, high transmission, wide full width at half maximum, and reduced crosstalk. In this study, we have utilized an inverse design algorithm to engineer high-performance bandpass filters for the mid-infrared range, achieving an average transmittance exceeding 80% within the bandpass window and below 10% in the stop band, which is comparable to that of commercial multilayer Bragg filters. Nanofabrication processes were employed to transfer the designed pattern into the gold film on ZnS substrate that is transparent in the mid-infrared range. The resulting filters exhibit spectral performance analogous to that of the inversely designed models, making them suitable for direct integration with mid-infrared photodetector arrays in multispectral imaging systems.

Integrated polarization-free Bragg filters with subwavelength gratings for photonic sensing.

We present polarization-free Bragg filters having subwavelength gratings (SWGs) in the lateral cladding region. This Bragg design expands modal fields toward upper cladding, resulting in enhanced light interaction with sensing analytes. Two device configurations are proposed and examined, one with index-matched coupling between transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes and the other one with hybrid-mode (HM) coupling. Both configurations introduce a strong coupling between two orthogonal modes (either TE-TM or HM1-HM2) and rotate the polarization of the input wave through Bragg reflection. The arrangements of SWGs help to achieve two configurations with different orthogonal modes, while expanding modal profiles toward the upper cladding region. Our proposed SWG-assisted Bragg gratings with polarization independency eliminate the need for a polarization controller and effectively tailor the modal properties, enhancing the potential of integrated photonic sensing applications.

Modeling of surface roughness in deeply etched photonic MEMS mirrors and filters

We study the impact of the surface roughness on the response of deeply etched silicon Bragg mirrors and resonators. The transfer matrix method is extended to account for the roughness in multilayered systems. The model is first verified numerically using the finite difference time domain (FDTD) method for surface roughness values up to 80 nm at a wavelength of 1550 nm. The response of the mirrors and filters having an RMS roughness of 30 nm is calculated by the developed model and compared with the numerical results of the FDTD results, and it shows a good agreement. Then the model results are compared with the experimental data of a Bragg mirror and filter, fabricated by the deep reactive ion etching Bosch process of silicon on an insulator wafer; they show a very good agreement in the insertion loss and 3-dB bandwidth due to the roughness model. Finally, the transmission, 3-dB bandwidth and quality factor of the optical filters based on single, double, and triple silicon layer mirrors are examined using the model and accounting for Gaussian beam excitation. The presented model can be used to guide the requirements on the fabrication quality of optical surfaces and the choice of the optimum number of layers.

Reconfigurable hybrid silicon waveguide Bragg filter using ultralow-loss phase-change material.

Reconfigurable silicon photonic devices attract much research attention, and hybrid integration with tunable phase-change materials (PCMs) exhibiting large refractive index contrast between amorphous (Am) and crystalline (Cr) states is a promising way to achieve this goal. Here, we propose and numerically investigate a Sb2Se3-Si hybrid waveguide Bragg filter operating in the telecom C-band on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. The proposed device consists of a Bragg grating (BG) with a thin top layer of ultralow-loss Sb2Se3 PCM interacting with evanescent field of the silicon waveguide mode. By harnessing the ultralow-loss and reversible index change of Sb2Se3 film, the spectral response of the hybrid BGs could be dynamically tuned. We also theoretically investigate the reversible phase transitions between Am and Cr states of Sb2Se3 film that could be attained by applying voltage pulses on the indium-tin-oxide (ITO) strip heater covered on Sb2Se3 film. Thermal simulations show that a 2 V (4.5 V) pulse with a duration of 400 ns (55 ns) applied to electric contacts would produce crystallization (or amorphization). The proposed structure may find great potential for on-chip phase tunable devices on a silicon platform.

Strong pump rejection filter for polarization-diverse silicon platforms.

Integrated wavelength filters with high optical rejection are key components in several silicon photonics circuits, including quantum photon-pair sources and spectrometers. Non-coherent cascading of modal-engineered Bragg filters allows for remarkable optical rejections in structures that only support transverse-electric (TE) polarized modes such as uncladded 220-nm-thick silicon. However, the restriction to TE-only platforms limits the versatility of the non-coherent cascading approach. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a new, to the best of our knowledge, approach for high-rejection filters in polarization-diverse platforms by combining non-coherent cascading of modal-engineered Bragg filters and anisotropy-engineered metamaterial bends. Bragg filters provide a high rejection of the TE mode, while the metamaterial bends remove any residual power propagating in the transverse-magnetic (TM) mode, without any penalty in terms of insertion loss or device footprint. Based on this strategy, we demonstrate optical rejection exceeding 60 dB in 300-nm-thick, cladded silicon waveguides.

On-chip dual-band waveguide Bragg filter with identical subnanometer-bandwidth stopbands near 1310 and 1950 nm wavelengths

We propose the realization of an on-chip dual identical narrowband Bragg filter at ∼ 1310 and ∼ 1950 n m wavelengths simultaneously based on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. By taking advantage of subwavelength corrugation behavior at large wavelengths and the difference in the mode areas of the involved modes at the two widely separated wavelengths, undesired diffraction losses are circumvented while achieving Bragg resonances at the two wavelengths simultaneously. A double-corrugation Bragg grating rib waveguide filter is proposed, with two sets of gratings, the inner one close to the rib operating near 1310 nm wavelength, with the outer grating being designed to achieve a transmission dip around 1950 nm. Introducing a proper lateral misalignment to the set of inner grating indents, a dual identical narrowband Bragg filter with ∼ 0.47 n m 3 dB bandwidth at ∼ 1310 n m and ∼ 1950 n m is achieved. The proposed design strategy based on the SOI platform relies on a single-etching fabrication process and presents potential applications in situations where equal-bandwidth filtering is needed in on-chip communications and sensing.

Complex spectral filters in silicon waveguides based on cladding-modulated Bragg gratings.

Spectral filters are important building blocks for many applications in integrated photonics, including datacom and telecom, optical signal processing and astrophotonics. Sidewall-corrugated waveguide grating is typically the preferred option to implement spectral filters in integrated photonic devices. However, in the high-index contrast silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform, designs with corrugation sizes of only a few tens of nanometers are often required, which hinders their fabrication. In this work, we propose a novel geometry to design complex Bragg filters with an arbitrary spectral response in silicon waveguides with laterally coupled Bragg loading segments. The waveguide core is designed to operate with a delocalized mode field, which helps reduce sensitivity to fabrication errors and increase accuracy on synthesized coupling coefficients and the corresponding spectral shape control. We present an efficient design strategy, based on the layer-peeling and layer-adding algorithms, that allows to readily synthesize an arbitrary target spectrum for our cladding-modulated Bragg gratings. The proposed filter concept and design methodology are validated by designing and experimentally demonstrating a complex spectral filter in an SOI platform, with 20 non-uniformly spaced spectral notches with a 3-dB linewidth as small as 210 pm.

Thermally chirped contra-directional couplers for residueless, bandwidth-tunable Bragg filters with fabrication error compensation.

Bandwidth-tunable filters are essential in elastic optical networks for dynamic bandwidth allocation. Existing solutions in silicon photonics face challenges to meet requirements in real-world applications due to design trade-offs and fabrication errors. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a silicon photonic tunable add-drop filter in a single-stage, hyperbolic-tangent-apodized contra-directional coupler with a segmented microheater. It allows to create an arbitrary temperature profile along the device for bandwidth tuning in both through and drop responses. We show that the algorithmic operation of the device can effectively compensate local fabrication nonuniformity and improve the out-of-band suppression ratio by 69%. Applying proper temperature offsets and slopes allows to continuously tune the filter's center wavelength over 8 nm and its drop-port 3 dB bandwidth between 14.0 and 22.4 nm.

Narrowband Bragg filters based on subwavelength grating waveguides for silicon photonic sensing.

Subwavelength grating (SWG) waveguides have been shown to provide enhanced light-matter interaction resulting in superior sensitivity in integrated photonics sensors. Narrowband integrated optical filters can be made by combining SWG waveguides with evanescently coupled Bragg gratings. In this paper, we assess the sensing capabilities of this novel filtering component with rigorous electromagnetic simulations. Our design is optimized for an operating wavelength of 1310 nm to benefit from lower water absorption and achieve narrower bandwidths than at the conventional wavelength of 1550 nm. Results show that the sensor achieves a sensitivity of 507 nm/RIU and a quality factor of 4.9 × 104, over a large dynamic range circumventing the free spectral range limit of conventional devices. Furthermore, the intrinsic limit of detection, 5.1 × 10-5 RIU constitutes a 10-fold enhancement compared to state-of-the-art resonant waveguide sensors.

Silicon subwavelength modal Bragg grating filters with narrow bandwidth and high optical rejection.

Waveguide Bragg grating filters with narrow bandwidths and high optical rejections are key functions for several advanced silicon photonics circuits. Here, we propose and demonstrate a new, to the best of our knowledge, Bragg grating geometry that provides a narrowband and high rejection response. It combines the advantages of subwavelength and modal engineering. As a proof-of-concept demonstration, we implement the proposed Bragg filters in 220-nm-thick Si technology with a single etch step. We experimentally show flexible control of the filter selectivity, with measured null-to-null bandwidths below 2 nm, and strength of 60 dB rejection with a null-to-null bandwidth of 1.8 nm.

Propagation of terahertz waves in a dust acoustic wave

The propagation of terahertz waves in a dust acoustic wave is investigated numerically. By assuming a sinus profile of the dust number density in the dust acoustic waves, the transmission properties are calculated using finite difference time domain method. It shows that the dust acoustic wave can function similarly as a Bragg filter to block the terahertz waves of a certain wavelength. The bandwidth of the filter depends on the density profile of the dust acoustic wave.

SAC-OCDMA system performance using narrowband Bragg filter encoders and decoders

In this paper, we have studied a Spectral Amplitude Coding Optical Code Division Multiple Access (SAC-OCDMA) system performance using fiber Bragg gratings equivalent to very narrow filters used in the system as encoders and decoders in both the transmitter and the receiver block. The system performance depends on several variables such as: the optical power; the fiber length; the data rate and the bandwidth. Different simulations have been realized in terms of the bit error rate (BER) and the quality factor (Q) to evaluate the effect of each parameter on the system performance and also to examine the impact of number of users. The obtained results using Optisystem network show clearly that the studied SAC-OCDMA system of three users remains efficient for fiber lengths up to 25 km at a data rate of 200 Mbits/s and a FBGs bandwidth of 0.6 nm. These results are realized with an acceptable bit error rate $$BER < 10^ {-9}$$ . In addition, a SAC-OCDMA system of 9 users was also simulated to assess the effect of the number of users. The results obtained show that for a fiber length $$\hbox {L}=5$$ Km, the system remains efficient for a number of users set at 8 users, then the longer the fiber length increases the more the number of possible users decreases. For $$\hbox {L}= 35$$ Km, the number of users for whom all users obtain a good BER value is 6 users.

Volatile and permanent optical gratings recorded in Bi2TeO5photorefractive crystal under high cw intensity

We report the recording of optical gratings on photorefractive $ {{\rm Bi}_2}{{\rm TeO}_5} $Bi2TeO5 crystals using $ \lambda = 532\,\,{\rm nm} $λ=532nm wavelength light. We studied the behavior of this material under high light intensity and found the presence of fast and slow gratings, both of photorefractive nature and exhibiting quite significant light intensity dependence for the $ 1 - 13\,\,{\rm kW}/{{\rm m}^2} $1-13kW/m2 range. A permanent grating was found after the complete erasure of fast and slow holograms recorded at room temperature. The experimental results show that the diffraction efficiency of the permanent grating increases with the recorded light intensity. The permanent grating performance as an optical Bragg filter was characterized by measuring the angular selectivity approximately 1.0 mrad. We also show that the diffraction efficiency of the permanent grating is quite dependent on the direction of light polarization.

Helical Bragg gratings filter for orbital angular momentum wave

Effective filtration of orbital angular momentum (OAM) modes is essential to achieve multiple-channel data transmission in an OAM fiber for telecommunication applications. The nature of helical-shaped OAM wave propagation possessing many topological charges implies the need for uniquely designed index-modulated filters to conform to its twisted propagating direction in the fiber. Here, different from previous structures in demultiplexing OAM modes, a helical-shaped fiber grating structure concept is proposed as a pathway toward efficient demultiplexing of OAM modes in a fiber. A comparison of our proposed structure with the conventional fiber Bragg filter in transmitting an OAM wave shows a stronger reflection of the higher order OAM mode. We suggest that the proposed fiber Bragg structure has strong potential to be used for OAM fiber telecommunication technology.

The control system elements of the new generation optical switching cell

In this paper calculation of new optical switch parameters that allows us to create next generation all-optical non-blocking switching system without external control devices is carried out for the first time. In particular, switching cell control device is studied in detail. The presented one includes Bragg filter, frequency detector, optical isolator, and former of a control signal. Here we also present the detail description and the numerical calculations of these devices for third transparent window (1550nm). The reflection and transmission coefficients are obtained, the passbands of the Bragg filter are presented, and the amplitude characteristic of the frequency detector is calculated.

Spectral coded phase bipolar OCDMA technological implementation thanks to low index modulation filters

Optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) systems are attracting an increasing interest in optical fiber communication. This is due to the various advantages that they provide; in particular for the simultaneous improvement capacity and flexible channel allocation as well as fastest data speeds and increased security. In this paper, the authors present an experimental demonstration of bipolar optical CDMA System with phase shift using E-beam technique on $$H_xLi_{1-x}NbO_3$$ transmission channel realized by proton exchange. The idea of the proposed system is to evaluate the result of eight cascaded Bragg filters in very narrow band. The coded sequence corresponds to that of Hadamard $$H_8(7)$$, represented by the bits ’1 1 −1 −1 −1 −1 1 1’, and phase shift have been identified on the coder spectral response whilst increasing the multiplexing capacity in terms of the total number of users and the data.