Influence of waveguide structure on Y-branch splitting ratio

Catalina Burtscher; Dana Seyringer

doi:10.1117/12.2050846

1 May 2014 Influence of waveguide structure on Y-branch splitting ratio

Catalina Burtscher, Dana Seyringer

Proceedings Volume 9133, Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits IV; 91331I (2014) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2050846
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2014, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

It is well known that the main problem in the Y-branch splitting approach is the processing of the branching point where two waveguides start to separate. This is technologically very difficult; leading generally to an asymmetric splitting ratio causing non-uniformity of the split power over all the output waveguides. In this work we show that not only processing of branching points influences strongly splitting properties of the device but also the used waveguide structure itself. The standard low index waveguides have usually size of 6 μm x 6 μm ensuring on one side small coupling loses between fibers and waveguides and on the other side supporting mainly the single mode light propagation. However, our simulations showed that in the standard 6 μm x 6 μm waveguides is the presence of the first mode already so strong that it causes additional asymmetric splitting of the optical signals. To suppress the presence of the first mode we reduced the waveguide core size from 6 μm x 6 μm to 5.5 μm x 5.5 μm and 5 μm x 5 μm and this way were able to improve the uniformity of the split power over all the output waveguides by factor 3. Additionally, based on these results we were also able to reduce the size of the designed Y-branch to the half.

Citation Download Citation

Catalina Burtscher and Dana Seyringer "Influence of waveguide structure on Y-branch splitting ratio", Proc. SPIE 9133, Silicon Photonics and Photonic Integrated Circuits IV, 91331I (1 May 2014); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2050846

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