Silica Waveguides Research Articles

Interferometric optical gyroscope based on an integrated silica waveguide coil with low loss.

An interferometric optical gyro (IOG) based on integrated devices are a promising alternative for miniaturized inertial sensors. However, improving their accuracy, which is determined by the sensing coil insertion loss, is crucial. In this work, an IOG is built using an integrated sensing coil produced from a 2.14-m-long SiO2 waveguide, the minimum bend radius and spacing of which are chosen to minimize the sensing coil insertion loss. The coil length is chosen by considering optimal detection limit constraints. Sinusoidal wave biasing modulation improves the system detection sensitivity. Finally, the IOG realizes the best yet reported bias drift of 7.32°/h.

Lateral silicon photonic grating-to-fiber coupling with angle-polished silica waveguide blocks.

We demonstrate a lateral, planar fiber-to-waveguide coupling strategy for photonic integrated circuits with diffraction grating couplers using angle-polished silica waveguide blocks fabricated with well-established planar lightwave circuit technologies. Compared to the conventional lateral coupling scheme with angle-polished fibers, the demonstrated scheme can significantly decrease the diverging distance between the reflective angle-polished facet and the grating couplers, and thereby maintains the overall coupling efficiency and alignment tolerances of the vertical coupling approach. The proposed method shows a small penalty in coupling efficiency (< 0.1 dB), and in-plane (out-of-plane) alignment tolerance for 1 dB excess loss is approximately 5 µm (9 µm).

Optical Trapping and Manipulating with a Silica Microring Resonator in a Self-Locked Scheme.

Based on the gradient force of evanescent waves in silica waveguides and add-drop micro-ring resonators, the optical trapping and manipulation of micro size particles is demonstrated in a self-locked scheme that maintains the on-resonance system even if there is a change in the ambient temperature or environment. The proposed configuration allows the trapping of particles in the high Q resonator without the need for a precise wavelength adjustment of the input signal. On the one hand, a silicon dioxide waveguide having a lower refractive index and relatively larger dimensions facilitates the coupling of the laser with a single-mode fiber. Furthermore, the experimental design of the self-locked scheme reduces the sensitivity of the ring to the environment. This combination can trap the micro size particles with a high stability while manipulating them with high accuracy.

A Hybrid-Plasmonic-Waveguide-Based Polarization-Independent Directional Coupler

In optical interconnection field, inconsistent coupling behaviors of TE and TM modes may cause abnormal operation. Therefore, it is very significant to implement a polarization-independent directional coupler. In this paper, a hybrid-plasmonic-waveguide-based polarization-independent directional coupler has been proposed. Since the energy of the hybrid plasmonic waveguides for TE and TM modes is distributed in different layers, we manage to achieve polarization independence by adjusting the material properties and dimensions of the corresponding layer. We optimize the parameters of our proposed directional coupler such as radius of silicon waveguide layer, height of silica waveguide layer, and the distance between the two waveguides, etc. Then performance of the directional coupler has been evaluated. It is worth mentioning that the length of the coupling section is only 4.25μm. Meanwhile, the polarization-dependent loss is only 0.393 dB, and the maximum coupling efficiency of TE and TM modes can reach 86.4% and 94.6%, respectively. Besides, the coupling efficiency of TM mode remains above 90% over the entire C-band, while the coupling efficiency also keeps at least 80% for TE mode. Finally, the manufacture process for the proposed directional coupler has been discussed. In brief, the improved polarization-independent directional coupler features small size, low energy loss, good polarization-independent characteristics, and wavelength insensitivity simultaneously. Compared to the other counterparts ever proposed, our proposed coupler can provide a perfect trade-off between device size and loss, which shows important potential applications in the fields of PIC and optical interconnection.

Coupling silica waveguides to photonic crystal waveguides through a multilayered Luneburg lens

We present a detailed analysis of a coupler based on the Luneburg lens to couple a silica waveguide to a photonic crystal (PhC) waveguide. The dependence of coupling efficiency on the lens’s truncation, cut position of the PhC structure, coupler tip width, and misalignment are investigated with a two-dimensional finite element method. We implement the lens with a concentric ring-based multilayer structure. We also present a method to replace layers with very narrow widths by layers of predetermined minimum widths in the structure of the lens. The coupling loss of the designed 2.7-µm-long coupler, connecting a 2.79-µm-wide silica waveguide to a PhC structure with a rod-type square lattice, is lower than 0.49 dB in the C-band. The average coupling loss in the entire S, C, L, and U bands of optical communications is 0.70 dB.

Direct UV written integrated planar waveguides using a 213 nm laser.

We present the first demonstration of integrated waveguides in planar silica devices fabricated using direct UV writing with 213 nm laser light. Waveguides were produced with different writing fluences and the NA and MFD of each were measured. Single mode waveguides were achieved at fluence values one-tenth that typically required when operating with a 244 nm laser, allowing for more rapid fabrication. A maximum in-plane index change of 2.4 ×10-3 for a writing fluence of 5 kJ cm-2 was estimated from NA measurements. Finally cutback measurements were performed and a propagation loss of 0.42 ± 0.07 dB cm-1 was directly measured, though losses as low as 0.2 ± 0.03 dB/cm are indicated through calculations.

Graphene Oxide Waveguide and Micro‐Ring Resonator Polarizers

AbstractIntegrated waveguide polarizers and polarization‐selective micro‐ring resonators (MRRs) incorporated with graphene oxide (GO) films are experimentally demonstrated. CMOS‐compatible doped silica waveguides and MRRs with both uniformly coated and patterned GO films are fabricated based on a large‐area, transfer‐free, layer‐by‐layer GO coating method that yields precise control of the film thickness. Photolithography and lift‐off processes are used to achieve photolithographic patterning of GO films with precise control of the placement and coating length. Detailed measurements are performed to characterize the performance of the devices versus GO film thickness and coating length as a function of polarization, wavelength and power. A high polarization dependent loss of ≈53.8 dB is achieved for the waveguide coated with 2‐mm‐long patterned GO films. It is found that intrinsic film material loss anisotropy dominates the performance for less than 20 layers whereas polarization‐dependent mode overlap dominates for thicker layers. For the MRRs, the GO coating length is reduced to 50 µm, yielding a ≈8.3 dB polarization extinction ratio between transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) resonances. These results offer interesting physical insights and trends of the layered GO films and demonstrate the effectiveness of introducing GO films into photonic‐integrated devices to realize high‐performance polarization selective components.

Generation and measurement of a squeezed vacuum up to 100 MHz at 1550 nm with a semi-monolithic optical parametric oscillator designed towards direct coupling with waveguide modules.

We report generation and measurement of a squeezed vacuum from a semi-monolithic Fabry-Pérot optical parametric oscillator (OPO) up to 100 MHz at 1550 nm. The output coupler of the OPO is a flat surface of a nonlinear crystal with partially reflecting coating, which enables direct coupling with waveguide modules. Using the OPO, we observed 6.2dB of squeezing at 2 MHz and 3.0 dB of squeezing at 100 MHz. The OPO operates at the optimal wavelength to minimize propagation losses in silica waveguides and looks towards solving a bottleneck of downsizing these experiments: that of coupling between a squeezer and a waveguide.

Study of Birefringence and Stress Distribution of SiO2 Film Optical Waveguide on Silicon Wafer

Silica waveguide planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology is driving the broad applications of various functional components to meet the increasing demands of the industry due to its advanced performance in large-scale wafer mass production. Despite the intense research interests in understanding and relaxing the stress causing the optical birefringence, not much research has been devoted to investigating the stress distribution. In this article, the thermal stress, growth-caused stress, and structural stress are comparably studied. The birefringence distribution of a 6 μm-thick SiO2 film from the center to the edge on a 6-inch silicon wafer was measured to be 0.0006 to 0.0038, leading to an equivalent stress distribution cross the wafer from −170 to −1000 MPa. This implies that the compressive stress of the thick SiO2 film on the wafer was nonuniformly distributed; however, it gradually increased from the center to the edge. Meanwhile, the measured stress of a SiO2 film decreased with the flow rate of the doped GeH4 gas. The algebraic sum of the above three stresses reached excellent agreement with the measurement results in both distribution form and amplitude. In both research and production, the agreeable optical property distributions between the theoretical calculations and experimental measurements are more sustainable to further improving the yields of SiO2 thick film PLC products.

Low-index-contrast waveguide bend based on truncated Eaton lens implemented by graded photonic crystals

Low-index contrast waveguides such as silica waveguides are indispensable part of passive integrated optical components. Reducing the bending radius of silica waveguides with low bend loss is vital in miniaturizing silica planar lightwave circuits. The Eaton lens is a gradient index lens that can bend parallel light rays by 90{\deg}, 180{\deg}, or 360{\deg}. We present a low-loss and compact 90{\deg} waveguide bend with a radius of 9 $\mu$m designed by truncating the Eaton lens. The performance of the designed bend, implemented by graded photonic crystal, was evaluated by full-wave two-dimensional finite element method. The average bend loss in the C-band is 0.9dB while the average bend loss for the wavelength range of 1260-1675nm is 1.05dB. The proposed design strategy can be applied to other low-index contrast waveguides.

Effective metrology and standard of the surface roughness of micro/nanoscale waveguides with confocal laser scanning microscopy.

Surface roughness is one of the important parameters affecting the optical scattering loss of dielectric waveguides. Despite extensive research interests in correlating optical losses with surface roughness, not much research focus has been dedicated to the study of an accurate metrology and measurement standard for the characterization of waveguide roughness. In this Letter, we report an effective metrology for the measurement of waveguide surface roughness, using confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM). We also provide the definition of surface roughness relevant to CLSM terminology based on the measured peak-to-valley (P-V) values, which can be correlated to the conventional root-mean-square roughness, by employing multi-dimensional statistical models. Finally, we demonstrate the use of CLSM metrology in measuring two-dimensional roughness of 10 μm×6 μm silica waveguides, showing an average top surface roughness of 0.151μm and an average sidewall roughness of 0.203μm. For comparison, the scanning electron microscopy (SEM) measurements are also carried out for the same waveguide samples, and then the measured sidewall roughness values are in the range of 0.08-0.12μm. Since SEM measures only the amplitude of roughness profile, while CLSM measures the P-V value, after doubling the SEM value, these two methods can provide comparable results of roughness.

Reduction of non-uniformity for a 16 × 16 arrayed waveguide grating router based on silica waveguides.

Here, a newly designed 16×16 cyclic arrayed waveguide grating router, capable of achieving loss uniformity across the whole free spectral range (FSR), is fabricated and experimentally demonstrated. This device is based on commonly used silica waveguides, which are compatible with basic planar lightwave circuit technology. The design, simulation, and experimental verification of the proposed method are presented, with the experimental results showing that the loss non-uniformity of FSR reduced from 2.70 to 1.05dB using this new design. This design brings in only tiny changes of mask and real estate.

Analysis for system errors in measuring the sidewall angle of a silica waveguide with confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM)

This article reports on the limitation analyses for the sidewall angle (SWA) measurements of microstructures with a confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM). Under the resolutions of three-dimensional imaging process of CLSM and its spatial frequency spectrum distribution, the optical phase signal of an object is studied to model the signal-noise-ratio (SNR) performance of measurements and the point spread function theory is applied to discuss the limitation to the measurement accuracy of SWA. Then, the characteristics of both the relative SNR performance and the measurement accuracy are numerically simulated with these two theoretical models. As a result, two important characteristics of CLSM measurements for SWA are found as that the relative SNR is quickly decreasing with SWA; the intrinsic measurement error linearly decreases with SWA. Furthermore, for a fabricated device sample having the waveguide dimension of 6 × 10 µm2, with a scanning section of 10nm and a detector aperture of PH = 0.3 Airy Unit, a CLSM image of 300 × 300 µm2 is acquired and reconstructed, in which 10 waveguide channels is covered. For a selected channel, based on ten measurements the averaged values of the left and right SWAs are 85.68° ± 0.32° and 86.59° ± 0.24°, respectively, after being compensated with the intrinsic measurement errors. Finally, the distribution and uniformity of SWA values among the ten waveguide channels in the image are analyzed.

Polymer on Quartz Waveguide Sensing Platform for Enhanced Evanescent Fluorescence Spectroscopy

This paper presents the study of the performance of a novel SU-8 waveguide on a quartz substrate for evanescent fluorescence spectroscopy. The sensitivity of the sensing platform (SU-8/quartz) was compared to an SU-8 waveguide on silica fabricated with the standard protocol. The physical properties of the SU-8/quartz waveguide resulting from a novel fabrication process allowed for a higher fluorescence coupling and lower optical losses than the SU-8/silica waveguide. The impact of the different indices of refraction of both waveguides on the fluorescence collection efficiency was calculated with three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain simulations by simulating randomly oriented and phased dimensionless current dipoles in the vicinity of their sensing layers. An evanescent fluorescence spectroscopy experiment was performed with different concentrations of Alexa-647 labeled-BSA proteins immobilized on the two polymer waveguides to compare the sensitivity of both sensing platforms. The SU-8/quartz waveguide revealed to have a higher calculated fluorescence collection efficiency and also a greater measured fluorescence light output compared to the SU-8/silica waveguide.

Invited Article: Enhanced four-wave mixing in waveguides integrated with graphene oxide

We demonstrate enhanced four-wave mixing (FWM) in doped silica waveguides integrated with graphene oxide (GO) layers. Owing to strong mode overlap between the integrated waveguides and GO films that have a high Kerr nonlinearity and low loss, the FWM efficiency of the hybrid integrated waveguides is significantly improved. We perform FWM measurements for different pump powers, wavelength detuning, GO coating lengths, and number of GO layers. Our experimental results show good agreement with theory, achieving up to ∼9.5-dB enhancement in the FWM conversion efficiency for a 1.5-cm-long waveguide integrated with 2 layers of GO. We show theoretically that for different waveguide geometries an enhancement in FWM efficiency of ∼20 dB can be obtained in the doped silica waveguides and more than 30 dB in silicon nanowires and slot waveguides. This demonstrates the effectiveness of introducing GO films into integrated photonic devices in order to enhance the performance of nonlinear optical processes.

Polymer-Silica Hybrid On-Chip Amplifier with Vertical Pumping Method

This article demonstrates a multilayer polymer-silica hybrid on-chip amplifier combining mode division multiplexing method. The multilayer amplifier consists of a pumping silica waveguide and an amplifying polymer waveguide. The pumping waveguide possesses the stability and the high damage threshold. The amplifying waveguide takes the advantages of the high compatibility and the high doping rate. The vertical pump of mode division multiplexing method can introduce the pumping light into the amplifying waveguide at any desired position of the chip. By the isolation method between signal and pumping light, the pumping light can be coupled into the amplifying waveguide, while the signal light cannot be coupled into the pumping waveguide. The parameters of doping rates, waveguide lengths, overlap factors, coupling parameters are calculated to optimize the gain characteristics of the amplifier. The amplifier with three position-optimized pumping light was designed achieving a maximum gain of 33.89 dB/cm with a waveguide length of 6 cm, a signal power of 0.1 mW and a pumping power of 300 mW. This polymer-silica hybrid amplifier is promising for the on-chip loss compensation of the 3D photonic integrated circuits and all optical transistors.

High Thermo-Optic Coefficient of Silicon Oxycarbide Photonic Waveguides

In this Letter, we report on the observation of a high thermo-optic coefficient (TOC) of silicon oxycarbide (SiOC) films deposited by reactive RF magnetron sputtering for integrated photonic waveguides. In the 1550 nm wavelength range, the measured TOC of SiOC is as large as 2.5 × 10–4 RIU °C–1, which is about 30 times larger than that of silica and almost twice that of silicon. Thin films of SiOC have been integrated in germanium-doped silica and silicon oxynitride conventional waveguide technology, achieving a 10× and 3× enhancement of the waveguide effective TOC, respectively. These results demonstrate the potential of SiOC for the realization of highly efficient phase actuators and low-power-consumption thermally tunable photonic integrated platforms.

High sensitivity temperature measurement via mask-free hybrid polymer long period fiber grating.

Long-period fiber gratings (LPFGs) are useful for environmental sensing under conditions of high corrosiveness and electromagnetic interference. Most LPFGs are fabricated by coherent or high-power UV illumination of an optical fiber under an amplitude mask, resulting in narrow and environmentally-dependent band rejection. We present a hybrid LPFG waveguide fabricated without an amplitude mask through polymer self-assembly under low-power incoherent UV illumination, which demonstrates high-temperature sensitivity in its transmission spectrum compared to LPFG sensors based purely on silica waveguides. A sensitivity of 1.5 nm °C -1 is obtained experimentally for attenuation near 1180 nm, and a sensitivity of 4.5 nm °C -1 with a low random error was obtained with a composite of attenuation bands. Finite element method simulations and coupling mode theory reveal this to be due to a thermo-optic coefficient one order of magnitude greater than that of fused silica. The device has potential for a simple and inexpensive transmission intensity based temperature sensor consisting of an infrared light source, the LPFG, a bandpass filter, and a photodiode.

Scalable and reconfigurable true time delay line based on an ultra-low-loss silica waveguide.

A scalable and reconfigurable on-chip optical true time delay line consisting of Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) switches and delay waveguides is proposed and demonstrated with the ultra-low-loss silica waveguide platform. The MZI switches provide the reconfiguration of the light traveling paths and hence different delays. Our proposed structure can be easily scaled to an M bit delay line with a slight increase in dimensions. The footprint of our fabricated 1bit delay line is 33 mm×13 mm (length×width) and can provide a delay of 6.0ps with an insertion loss of 1.2dB at the operating wavelength of 1550nm, while the footprint of the 4bit delay line is 43 mm×14 mm and can provide a discrete delay tuning from 6.0 to 90.2ps with a delay deviation lower than 0.2ps and a tuning response time of 0.84ms. The insertion losses are lower than ∼2.34 dB, and the extinction ratios are greater than 20.42dB. The average switching power is ∼132.6 mW. Our proposed optical true time delay lines could find applications for optical beamforming in phased array antennas.

Efficient point-by-point Bragg gratings fabricated in embedded laser-written silica waveguides using ultrafast Bessel beams.

We demonstrate highly efficient Bragg gratings written point-by-point by sequential single-pulse ultrashort Bessel laser beams in laser photoinscribed single-mode waveguides in bulk fused silica. The use of chirped non-diffractive Bessel beams determines a strong Bragg resonance in a weak-to-strong transitional regime, augmenting to a record value of 40 dB/cm at 1550nm in the third order. The Bessel-induced refractive index modulation is negative and localized to sub-micrometer (200nm) transverse scales. The strong light confinement in Bessel beams ensuring uniform one-dimensional void conditions thus allows for enhanced precision in the Bragg grating waveguide design. We demonstrate flexible fabrication of multiplexed waveguide gratings for multiple and tunable spectral resonances.