Ultra-compact low loss polarization insensitive silicon waveguide splitter

Opt Express. 2013 Jul 15;21(14):16331-6. doi: 10.1364/OE.21.016331.

Abstract

We observe that the cascaded typical Y junctions will introduce unwanted periodic fringes over the spectrum in practical systems when they link with multimode waveguides. To solve the problem, we design and experimentally demonstrate a wavelength insensitive multimode interferometer (MMI) based 3-dB splitter which has all the merits of Y-splitters such as polarization insensitivity and ultra-compactness. The splitter has a footprint of 1.5 × 1.8 µm(2), nearly one order smaller than the previously reported MMI splitters. The measured excess losses for TE and TM modes at telecom wavelength are as low as -0.11 dB and -0.18 dB respectively.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Equipment Design
  • Equipment Failure Analysis
  • Interferometry / instrumentation*
  • Miniaturization
  • Refractometry / instrumentation*
  • Silicon / chemistry*
  • Surface Plasmon Resonance / instrumentation*

Substances

  • Silicon