Silicon nitride assisted tri-layer edge coupler on lithium niobate-on-insulator platform

Opt Lett. 2023 Jul 1;48(13):3367-3370. doi: 10.1364/OL.492372.

Abstract

Lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) is a promising integration platform for various applications, such as optical communication, microwave photonics, and nonlinear optics. To make Lithium niobate (LN) photonic integrated circuits (PICs) more practical, low-loss fiber-chip coupling is essential. In this Letter, we propose and experimentally demonstrate a silicon nitride (SiN) assisted tri-layer edge coupler on LNOI platform. The edge coupler consists of a bilayer LN taper and an interlayer coupling structure composed of an 80 nm-thick SiN waveguide and an LN strip waveguide. The measured fiber-chip coupling loss for the TE mode is 0.75 dB/facet at 1550 nm. Transition loss between the SiN waveguide and LN strip waveguide is ∼0.15 dB. In addition, the fabrication tolerance of the SiN waveguide in the tri-layer edge coupler is high.

MeSH terms

  • Oxides*
  • Photons*
  • Silicon Compounds

Substances

  • lithium niobate
  • silicon nitride
  • Oxides
  • Silicon Compounds