High-efficiency hybrid amorphous silicon grating couplers for sub-micron-sized lithium niobate waveguides

Opt Express. 2018 Nov 12;26(23):29651-29658. doi: 10.1364/OE.26.029651.

Abstract

We demonstrate hybrid amorphous silicon uniform grating couplers for efficient coupling between the standard single-mode fiber and sub-micron lithium niobate waveguides. The grating couplers exhibit coupling efficiency of -3.06 dB and 1-dB bandwidth of 55 nm. The amorphous silicon grating couplers can also provide a universal building block applicable to other photonic platforms such as silicon nitride waveguides, whose moderate refractive index values prevent high efficiency grating couplers to be fabricated in the native waveguide.