Thermally induced sideband generation in silicon-on-insulator cladding modulated Bragg notch filters

We investigate and experimentally demonstrate a cladding modulated Bragg grating superstructure as a dynamically tunable and reconfigurable multi-wavelength notch filter. A non-uniform heater element was implemented to periodically modulate the effective index of the grating. The Bragg grating bandwidth is controlled by judiciously positioning loading segments away from the waveguide core, resulting in a formation of periodically spaced reflection sidebands. The thermal modulation of a periodically configured heater elements modifies the waveguide effective index, where an applied current controls the number and intensity of the secondary peaks. The device was designed to operate in TM polarization near the central wavelength of 1550 nm and was fabricated on a 220-nm silicon-on-insulator platform, using titanium-tungsten heating elements and aluminum interconnects. We experimentally demonstrate that the Bragg grating self-coupling coefficient can be effectively controlled in a range from 7 mm^-1 to 110 mm^-1 by thermal tuning, with a measured bandgap and sideband separation of 1 nm and 3 nm, respectively. The experimental results are in excellent agreement with simulations.