dB For TM Polarization Research Articles

Polarization-independent waveguide grating coupler using an optimized polysilicon overlay.

We propose and validate a new, to the best of our knowledge, approach to designing a polarization-independent waveguide grating coupler, using an optimized polysilicon overlay on a silicon grating structure. Simulations predicted coupling efficiencies of about -3.6 dB and -3.5 dB for TE and TM polarizations, respectively. The devices were fabricated using photolithography in a multi-project wafer fabrication service by a commercial foundry and have measured coupling losses of -3.96 dB for TE polarization and -3.93 dB for TM polarization.

Numerical and experimental demonstration of inverse designed low-index polarization-insensitive wavelength demultiplexer

The computational inverse design has paved the way for the design of highly efficient, compact, and novel nanophotonic structures beyond human intuition and trial-and-error approaches. Apparently, with nanophotonic design power, the exploration and implementation of multi-objective, complex, and functional nanophotonic devices become feasible. Herein, we used a recently emerged inverse design framework to demonstrate the design of a 1 × 2 polarization-insensitive wavelength division multiplexer (PIWDM) made of a low-refractive-index material with an index of 1.55. The inversely designed PIWDM structure successfully steers toward the targeted channels for 1.30 µm and 1.55 µm with TE and TM polarizations. Taking advantage of the design with a low refractive index material, we scaled the structural dimensions corresponding to the microwave region, fabricated the compact device using a 3D printer, and conducted an experiment as a proof of concept. The transmission values of the fabricated PIWDM device were −4.87 and −2.18 dB for TE and −2.19 and −2.23 dB for TM polarization at WG-I and WG-II, respectively.

Design and analysis of polarization independent MMI based power splitter for PICs

An ultracompact and low loss polarization-independent 1 ​× ​2 power splitter based on multimode interference (MMI) is designed and analyzed using Eigenmode expansion (EME) and variational FDTD method on silicon on insulator. The numerical tool shows that the excess loss of the power splitter is 0.04 ​dB for TE and 0.06 ​dB for TM polarization at wavelength 1550 ​nm while the polarization differential loss (PDL) is ​< ​0.07 ​dB over wavelength 1500 ​nm–1600 ​nm. Moreover, the optimized MMI structure has a fabrication tolerance of width ±150 ​nm and a length of ±800 ​nm. In addition, polarization-independent arbitrary power splitter (APS) is designed using cascaded MMI and tapered waveguide as a phase shifter having excess loss ​< ​0.16 ​dB for TE and <0.21 ​dB for TM mode at wavelength 1550 ​nm. The proposed devices have broad applications in optical interconnect and switches for PICs.

Ultra-broadband and compact polarizing beam splitter in silicon photonics

We design and experimentally demonstrate a polarizing beam splitter (PBS) on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform based on an asymmetric directional coupler. The asymmetric directional coupler consists of a regular strip waveguide and a sub-wavelength grating (SWG) waveguide. Engineering the waveguide dispersion via SWG, the phase-matching condition can be satisfied for TM polarization over a broad bandwidth when the waveguide dimensions are optimized. The coupling region of the realized PBS is ∼7.2 µm long. For the fabricated PBS, the polarization extinction ratio (PER) is 10–45 dB and the insertion loss is 0.3–2.5 dB for TM polarization while the PER is 14–22 dB and the insertion loss is &lt; 0.6 dB for TE polarization when operating in the wavelength range of 1460 –1610 nm.

Transformation optics based all-dielectric polarization-dependent metamaterial realized by 3D printing and graphite filling

An all-dielectric polarization-dependent metamaterial consisting of polymer and graphite is presented based on an anisotropic reflectionless TM waveguide designed using impedance-tunable transformation-optics. The simple structure for the metamaterial is given by discretizing it into several pieces of meshed panels in which a series of special cells are configured by effective medium approximations. The simulated results show that the metamaterial exhibits different transmittance for TE and TM polarization at 0° and 45° incident angle from 2.8 to 5.2 GHz. A metamaterial sample is fabricated via a two-step approach involving the 3D printing of polylactic acid panels and a novel graphite tape mask filling technique of graphite powder. The measured transmittance of the sample is −0.5 dB for TM polarization from 2.8 to 5.2 GHz. For TE polarization it is, on average, −4 dB and −3 dB at 0° and 45° incident angle respectively.

Compact polarization beam splitter for silicon photonic integrated circuits with a 340-nm-thick silicon core layer.

A polarization beam splitter (PBS) is proposed and realized for silicon photonic integrated circuits with a 340-nm-thick silicon core layer by introducing an asymmetric directional coupler (ADC), which consists of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) nanowire and a subwavelength grating (SWG) waveguide. The SWG is introduced to provide an optical waveguide which has much higher birefringence than a regular 340-nm-thick SOI nanowire, so that it is possible to make the phase-matching condition satisfied for TE polarization only in the present design when the waveguide dimensions are optimized. Meanwhile, there is a significant phase mismatching for TM polarization automatically. In this way, the present ADC enables strong polarization selectivity to realize a PBS that separates TE and TM polarizations to the cross and through ports, respectively. The realized PBS has a length of ∼2 μm for the coupling region. For the fabricated PBS, the extinction ratio (ER) is 15-30dB and the excess loss is 0.2-2.6dB for TE polarization while the ER is 20-27dB and the excess loss is 0.3-2.8dB for TM polarization when operating in the wavelength range of 1520-1580nm.

Hybrid and Etch-Less Electrooptic Waveguide Modulator Based on Photo-Bleaching and Strain Induced Optical Waveguide Technique in Polymer

A hybrid and etchless electrooptic (EO) polymer waveguide modulator based on both a photo-bleaching-induced optical waveguide (PBOW) and a strain-induced optical waveguide (SIOW) is described. The SIOW is defined by a metal strip line stressor deposited on top of the upper cladding that introduces the refractive index change within the core region. The PBOW technique is used to form an optical waveguide which is based on a photo-bleaching process, known as a photo-oxidation that is an irreversible decomposition of EO material, resulting in a permanent decrease in index of refraction. It is shown that this proposed fabrication idea combining two etchless techniques can be applicable to a wide range of polymer photonic integrated circuits. Preliminary results obtained from fabricated devices reveal that their half-wave voltage are ranging from 8 V to 10 V, their extinction ratio exhibits more than 15 dB, and the fiber-to-waveguide-to-lens loss is estimated to be ~9.5 dB for TM polarization at 1.55/m wavelength in the active interaction of ~1.5 cm long.

Terahertz polarization beam splitter based on photonic crystal and multimode interference

We design a compact terahertz (THz) polarization beam splitter. Both plane wave expansion method and finite-difference time-domain method are used to calculate and analyze the characteristics of the proposed device. The designed polarization beam splitter can split TE-polarized and TM-polarized THz waves into different propagation directions. The simulation results show that the extinction ratios are larger than 18.36 dB for TE polarization and 13.35 dB for TM polarization in the frequency range from 1.86 THz to 1.91 THz, respectively. The designed polarization beam splitter has the advantages of small size and compact structure with a total size of 4.825 mm×0.400 mm.

Flip-chip optical couplers with scalable I/O count for silicon photonics

A scalable and tolerant optical interfacing method based on flip-chip bonding is developed for silicon photonics packaging. Bidirectional optical couplers between multiple silicon-on-insulator waveguides and single-mode polymer waveguides are designed and fabricated. Successful operation is verified experimentally in the 1530-1570 nm spectral window. At the wavelength of 1570 nm, the coupling loss is as low as 0.8 dB for both polarization states and the planar misalignment loss is less than 0.6 dB for TE and 0.3 dB for TM polarization in a lateral silicon-polymer waveguide offset range of ± 2 µm. The coupling loss does not exhibit any temperature dependence up to the highest measurement point of 70°C.

Vertical chip-to-chip coupling between silicon photonic integrated circuits using cantilever couplers

We demonstrate vertical chip-to-chip light coupling using silicon strip waveguide cantilever couplers. The guided-wave couplers consist of silicon strip waveguides embedded within silicon dioxide cantilevers. The cantilevers deflect 90° out-of-plane via residual stress, allowing vertical light coupling between separate chips. A chip-to-chip coupling loss of 2.5 dB per connection is measured for TE polarization and 1.1 dB for TM polarization at 1550 nm wavelength. The coupling loss varies by less than±0.8 dB within the wavelength range from 1500 nm to 1565 nm for both polarizations. The couplers enable broadband and compact system architectures involving high speed vertical data transport between photonic integrated circuits.

Refractive-Index Engineering of Planar Waveguides with Subwavelength Gratings

I integrated photonic circuits, the refractive-index contrast is usually set by the choice of the material platform. For example, for silicon photonic circuits operating at a wavelength near l= 1.55 μm, the waveguide core and the cladding indices are given by the material constants of silicon (n = 3.5) and silicon dioxide (n = 1.44), and waveguide devices must be designed within the constraint of these fixed values. From free-space optics, we know that periodic dielectric structures with a periodicity smaller than one half of the wavelength do not diffract any light. Instead, such so-called subwavelength gratings (SWGs) act as homogeneous effective media with spatially averaged refractive index.1 We have recently demonstrated the first use of SWGs for refractive-index engineering in microphotonic waveguides, providing a powerful method for controlling the refractive index of a waveguide core in any specific location of a photonic chip. Importantly, our method only relies on standard fabrication techniques and can be implemented without any modifications to the chip fabrication process flow. The structure shown in (a) exemplifies refractive-index engineering of a silicon photonic wire waveguide. By etching periodic gaps of a well-defined width w and pitch L into a standard silicon photonic wire, an SWG waveguide is formed with an effective core index determined by the duty ratio w/L. Calculation of the dispersion relation of the segmented waveguide and comparison with the dispersion of an equivalent photonic wire waveguide with identical cross section and a core index of n = 2.65, as shown in (b) confirms theoretically the concept of spatial refractive-index averaging. Experimentally, we have observed waveguiding in such SWG structures with a propagation loss as low as 2.1 dB/cm, comparable to the best photonic wire waveguides reported, and with a low and nearly wavelengthindependent group index, as predicted by theory.2 Although consistent with Bloch theory, it is fascinating to observe light propagating almost unperturbedly through so many strong discontinuities.3 Among the applications of SWG waveguides4 is an SWG slab waveguide structure that simultaneously acts as a lateral cladding for a photonic wire waveguide in a novel microspectrometer design and an efficient in-plane fiberchip coupling structure. The coupler structure works by gradual modification of the waveguide core index, leading to mode-size transformation between a high-index photonic wire and the lowindex optical fiber. Measured coupling loss is 0.9 dB for TE and 1.2 dB for TM polarization. SWG waveguides were also implemented for highly efficient waveguide crossings,5 such as those shown in (c). (a) SEM image of an SWG waveguide. (b) Dispersion relation of an SWG waveguide and an equivalent photonic wire waveguide with core refractive index of 2.65 (TE polarization). (c) SWG waveguide crossings. (a)

트렌치 구조를 이용한 저전력 1×2 폴리머 열 광학 스위치의 제작

트렌치 구조를 이용한 저전력 1<TEX>$\times$</TEX>2 폴리머 열 광학 스위치를 제안하고 제작하였다. 최적의 위치에 적절히 형성된 트렌치 구조는 전극으로부터 발생한 열 흐름을 방해하여 전력 소보를 줄이는데 기여할 수 있다 광 도파로를 구성하는 폴리머 층에서의 온도 분포가 변하여 Y-분기를 이루는 두 도파로들 사이의 온도 기울기가 급격하게 증가하기 때문이다. 본 실험에서는 트렌치 구조의 효과를 비교 분석하기 위해 트렌치 구조가 없는 1<TEX>$\times$</TEX>2 폴리머 열 광학 스위치도 동일한 기판 위에 함께 제작하였다. 트렌치 구조를 이용한 열 광학 스위치의 경우, 측정된 누화는 TE 편광에서 -17.0 dB 이하. TM 편광에서 -15.0 dB 이하였다 전력 소모는 트렌치 구조가 없는 열 광학 스위치의 소모 전력보다 25% 감소한 약 66 ㎽였다. A low-power <TEX>$1{\times}2$</TEX> polymeric thermo-optic switch with a trench structure is proposed and fabricated. The trench structure in the optimized region slows down the heat flow from the electrodes, which contributes to the reduction of power consumption. The temperature distribution in the polymer layers has been adjusted to increase the temperature gradient between the two arms of the Y-branch. For comparison, a <TEX>$1{\times}2$</TEX> polymeric thermo-optic switch with no trench structure is fabricated together on the same substrate. In the device with a trench structure, the measured crosstalk is less than -17.0 dB for TE polarization.-15.0 dB for TM polarization. The power consumption is about 66 mW, which is 25% less than that of the device with no trench structure.

Scalability analysis of diffractive optical element-based free-space photonic circuits for interoptoelectronic chip interconnections

An interchip free-space optical interconnection module is investigated to solve the pin-input-output bottleneck at the interface of silicon integrated circuits. The scalability of the photonic circuit is theoretically analyzed by use of the minimum feature size requirement of each diffractive element used. The study showed that interconnection densities of 1000-2000 channels/cm is possible for a 40-mm interconnection length with a 3-mm-thick optical substrate. Diffraction-limited imaging capability has been demonstrated using a fabricated prototype, confirming its applicability for interchip free-space interconnections. Photonic circuit insertion losses of -23.4 dB for TE polarization and -25.9 dB for TM polarization as well as a polarization-dependent loss of 2.5 dB are found to be caused primarily by a pair of binary linear gratings used for beam deflections. Design modifications aiming at insertion loss reduction and further improvement of tolerance capabilities are also discussed.

A long InGaAsP/InP waveguide section with small dimensions

A spirally folded InGaAsP/InP ridge-type waveguide with 12.4 mm length, corresponding to 4-cm free-space length, on a device area of 1 mm*1 mm, was realized. Insertion loss was measured to be 4 dB for TE-polarization and 4.5 dB for TM-polarization, most of which is caused by normal propagation loss (2 dB/cm for straight waveguides). Excess bending loss is estimated to be 1.5 dB for TE and 2 dB for TM-polarization. >

A low-loss beam splitter with an optimized waveguide structure

Novel beam splitters with optimized waveguide structures are designed and fabricated using reactive ion etching. At 1.15 mu m the excess loss of the beam splitter is measured to be 1.2 dB for TE and 1.8 dB for TM polarizations, respectively.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>