Design of an ultra-short coupler in an asymmetric twin-waveguide structure using transformation optics

An integrated vertical coupler that transfers light from the lower passive waveguide to the upper active waveguide in an asymmetric twin-waveguide integration structure (in InGaAsP/InP material system) is designed using transformation optics (TO). The length of the coupler is as short as 3 μm, which is two orders of magnitude shorter than that of traditional tapered couplers. According to three-dimensional full-wave simulations, the designed optimized coupler has a high coupling efficiency of 94.9%, and a low reflection at the wavelength of 1.55 μm. Subsequently, quasi-conformal mapping is employed to reduce the material complexity and to make it possible to realize the coupler by purely using an isotropic dielectric material. Applying TO to integrated photonic devices may motivate new applications, and improve integration density on the InP platform.