The ability to manipulate light propagation is crucial for the development of optical communication and information processing systems. Photonic integrated circuits have gained significant attention due to their ability to integrate a large volume of components and operate at high speeds, making them ideal for handling the increasing data capacity and rate. In this study, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a novel method for beam steering using waveguide arrays with specific distributed spacing profiles. By analyzing the diffraction and coherence properties, we discovered that a single waveguide array can perform imaging and phase transformation functions, which are typically achieved using optical lenses. To further enhance this capability, we fabricated corresponding devices on a silicon nitride waveguide platform and investigated the light propagation process through the arrayed waveguide. We successfully achieved various forms of beam steering, including focusing, expansion, and collimation. This beam control method holds great potential for on-chip optical routing, ranging, sensing, and other applications. It offers high integration density and scalability, making it a promising solution for the development of advanced optical systems.
Large-scale optical switches are greatly demanded in building optical interconnections in data centers and high performance computers (HPCs). Silicon optical switches have advantages of being compact and CMOS process compatible, which can be easily monolithically integrated. However, there are difficulties to construct large ports silicon optical switches. One of them is the non-uniformity of the switch units in large scale silicon optical switches, which arises from the fabrication error and causes confusion in finding the unit optimum operation points. In this paper, we proposed a method to detect the optimum operating point in large scale switch with limited build-in power monitors. We also propose methods for improving the unbalanced crosstalk of cross/bar states in silicon electro-optical MZI switches and insertion losses. Our recent progress in large scale silicon optical switches, including 64 × 64 thermal-optical and 32 × 32 electro-optical switches will be introduced. To the best our knowledge, both of them are the largest scale silicon optical switches in their sections, respectively. The switches were fabricated on 340-nm SOI substrates with CMOS 180- nm processes. The crosstalk of the 32 × 32 electro-optic switch was -19.2dB to -25.1 dB, while the value of the 64 × 64 thermal-optic switch was -30 dB to -48.3 dB.
Silicon photonic-wire waveguide is one of the most promising platforms in constructing compact optical devices, since
the waveguide can be bent with a radius of less then several microns. Recently, we have demonstrated various optical
devices based on silicon photonic-wire waveguides, which include a directional coupler, a tunable optical add-drop
multiplexer, and some ultra-compact 1 x N optical switches. The optical coupling length of the directional coupler was
just around 10 microns, due to its high coupling efficiency. The tunable optical add-drop multiplexer was constructed
with Bragg grating waveguides. It was about 700-μm-long, and was controlled through thermo-optic effect. The
maximum center-wavelength shift of the tunable optical add-drop multiplexer was 6.6 nm, which was obtained at a
tuning power of 0.82 W. The 1 x N optical switches were Mach-Zehnder interferometer types and were also thermally
controlled. The 1 x 2 switch was compact with a footprint of 85 x 30 µm2. Its maximum extinction ratio exceeded 30 dB.
The switching power and switching time was about 90 mW and 100 μsec, respectively. The 1 x 4 optical switch was
constructed based on the 1 x 2 switch. Its operation was successfully demonstrated. The 1 x 4 optical switch was
believed to be the smallest switch in the world. A 1 x 8 optical switch was also demonstrated with its switching
operations. Further, we are fabricating a compact packaged switch module with a size of 15 x 8 x 5 (height) mm3, which
includes a 1 x 4 optical switch and the input and output fiber couplers assembly.
We report on a channel drop filter with a mode gap in the propagating mode of a photonic crystal slab that was
fabricated on silicon on an insulator wafer. The results, simulated with the 3-dimensional finite-difference time-domain
and plane-wave methods, demonstrated that an index-guiding mode for the line defect waveguide of a photonic crystal
slab has a band gap at wave vector k = 0.5 for a mainly TM-like light-wave. The mode gap works as a distributed Bragg
grating reflector that propagates the light-wave through the line defect waveguide, and can be used as an optical filter.
The filter bandwidth was varied from 1-8 nm with an r/a (r: hole radius, a: lattice constant) variation around the
wavelength range of 1550-1600 nm. We fabricated a Bragg reflector with a photonic crystal line-defect waveguide and
Si-channel waveguides and by measuring the transmittance spectrum found that the Bragg reflector caused abrupt dips
in transmittance. These experimental results are consistent with the results of the theoretical analysis described above.
Utilizing the Bragg reflector, we fabricated channel dropping filters with photonic crystal slabs connected between
channel waveguides and demonstrated their transmittance characteristics. They were highly drop efficient, with a flattop
drop-out spectrum at a wavelength of 1.56 μm and a drop bandwidth of 5.8 nm. Results showed that an optical adddrop
multiplexer with a 2-D photonic crystal will be available for application in WDM devices for photonic networks
and for LSIs in the near future.
Reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (R-OADMs) are indispensable devices in wavelength division
multiplexing (WDM) network systems, since they can be used for dynamically wavelength routing and for replacing any
failed OADM unit. Here, we propose a photonic integrated R-OADM device based on silicon photonic crystal (PhC)
slab waveguides, which is controlled through thermo-optic effect. The R-OADM device was composed of a tunable
wavelength multiplexer/demultiplexer and a 2×2 optical switch, which were both formed with Mach-Zehnder
interferometers (MZIs). The device was compact with a net footprint of 500 μm × 140 μm, excluding its electrode pads.
The dropping central wavelength of the R-OADM can be tuned through thermo-optic effect, and the output port of the
drop signal can be selected between the THROUGH and DROP ports with the 2x2 optical switch. A maximum 10.8 nm
dropping wavelength tuning was obtained with a heating power of 0.9 W. The 3-dB channel-dropping bandwidth was 5
nm and the extinction ratio at the dropping wavelength for the port THROUGH was as high as 40 dB. The tuning
response speed was about 100 μsec.
We fabricated various microscopic optical devices using photonic crystal slab and Si-wire waveguides and demonstrated their fundamental characteristics. We demonstrated a channel-dropping filter with a photonic crystal slab point-defect optical cavity. Wavelength resolution of less than 1.5 nm and signal dropping efficiency of more than 90 % were obtained for a 20-μm-square device. We also demonstrated an optical add/drop multiplexer with Bragg grating reflectors made from Si-wire waveguides. Its dropping wavelength bandwidth was less than 2 nm, and the center wavelength of the dropped optical signal could be tuned by thermo-optic control using a microheater formed on the Bragg reflector. Using Si-wire waveguide, we also demonstrated thermo-optic switches by forming a micro heater on a branch of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer constructed from the waveguides. In this switching operation, we observed an extinction ratio of more than 30 dB, switching power of less than 100 mW, and switching response speed of less than 100 μs using a 1 × 2 optical switch with an 85 × 30 μm2 footprint. Using the 1 × 2 optical switch elements, we also fabricated a compact 1 × 4 optical switch and demonstrated its fundamental operation.
We report on a channel-drop filter (CDF) with a mode gap of propagating mode for a photonic crystal slab that was fabricated on silicon on an insulator wafer. The results simulated with 3-dimensional finite-difference time-domain and plane-wave methods demonstrated that an index-guiding mode for a line defect waveguide of a photonic crystal slab has a band gap at wave vector k = 0.5 for a mainly TM-like light-wave. The mode gap works as a distributed Bragg grating reflector for the propagating light-wave through the line defect waveguide, and it can be used as an optical filter. The filter bandwidth was varied from 1 - 8 nm with an r/a (r: hole radius, a: lattice constant) variation around the wavelength range of 1550 - 1600 nm. We fabricated a Bragg reflector with a photonic crystal line-defect waveguide and with Si-channel waveguides and obtained results of transmittance abrupt dips that come from the Bragg reflector that were measured in the transmittance spectrum. The experimental results are consistent with our theoretical analysis.
Si-nanowire waveguides are attractive structures for constructing various optical devices that are extremely small, and that can be flexibly connected as devices on a silicon (Si) wafer. The waveguides can be bent with extremely small curvatures of less than a few micrometers of bending radius because the large difference of refractive indices between the Si-core (n = 3.5) and the silica cladding material (n = 1.5) strongly confines the optical power in the waveguide core. Therefore, these waveguides are promising for flexible optical interconnections on Si chips as well as for constructing many extremely small optical devices. We used Si-nanowire waveguides to fabricate optical directional couplers and demonstrated their fundamental characteristics. Their coupling-length was extremely short, several micrometers, because of strong optical coupling between the waveguide cores. Therefore, we could construct ultra compact power combiners/dividers. We have also demonstrated wavelength demultiplexing functions for these devices with a long coupled waveguide. Optical outputs from a device with a 100-μm long coupled waveguide changed reciprocally with 20-nm wavelength spacing between the parallel and cross ports. Ultra small optical add-drop multiplexers (OADMs) with Bragg grating reflectors made of the Si-nanowire waveguides have been also demonstrated. The dropping wavelength bandwidth of the OADMs was less than 0.7 nm, and these dropping wavelengths could be precisely designed by adjusting the grating period, and this indicated the possibility of applying these devices in dense WDM systems. Using the Si-nanowire waveguide, we have also demonstrated nonlinear-optic effects such as the spectral broadening of optical short pulses due to self-phase modulation and nonlinear transmittance based on two-photon absorption. At a 12 W input power level, we observed a 1.5-π nonlinear phase shift as well as strong saturation of optical output power from a 4-mm Si-nanowire waveguide sample, and that indicates the possibility of constructing integrated nonlinear-optic wavelength conversion devices or optical limiters with Si-nanowire waveguides.
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