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Relaxed fabrication tolerance for self-imaging photonic crystal waveguide splitters using a tapered multimode
Min Zhang1, Asger Christian Krüger, Nathaniel Groothoff
1Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Århus C, Denmark. minz@inano.dk
Optics Letters
|August 18, 2011
Summary
Researchers developed a tapered photonic crystal waveguide (PhCW) splitter to balance output power in integrated circuits. This design improves fabrication tolerance and maintains performance for compact photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
Area of Science:
- Photonics and Optical Engineering
- Materials Science for Integrated Optics
Background:
- Power imbalance in multi-output waveguide devices necessitates advanced compensation techniques.
- Multimode interference (MMI) regions are crucial for power splitting but sensitive to fabrication variations.
- Photonic crystal waveguides (PhCWs) offer unique dispersion properties for device miniaturization.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compensate for power imbalance in waveguide outputs using dispersion manipulation.
- To enhance fabrication tolerance for 1x3 PhCW splitters.
- To develop ultracompact splitters for photonic integrated circuits (PICs).
Main Methods:
- Simulated and experimentally verified the use of a tapered region at the MMI interface.
- Manipulated guided propagation dispersion within the MMI region.
- Analyzed fabrication tolerance for PhCW hole diameters in a tapered 1x3 splitter.
Main Results:
- Achieved well-balanced output power within 1 dB across different waveguide outputs.
- Relaxed fabrication tolerance for PhCW hole diameters by at least 27 nm.
- Observed a minimal effective bandwidth shift of approximately 13 nm despite a 10 nm reduction in hole diameter.
Conclusions:
- A tapered MMI region effectively compensates for power imbalance in PhCW splitters.
- The optimized splitter demonstrates enhanced fabrication tolerance, crucial for mass production.
- This ultracompact 1x3 splitter is a promising component for advanced PICs.
