Effect of the first-order mode in access waveguides on the performance of unbalanced MMI couplers

Author

Patent, E.A. ; van der Tol, J.J.G.M. ; Karouta, F. ; Binsma, J.J.M. ; Smit, M.K.

Author_Institution

Opto-Electron. Devices Group, Eindhoven Univ. of Technol., Netherlands

Volume

16

Issue

8

fYear

2004

Firstpage

1882

Lastpage

1884

Abstract

Unbalanced multimode interference (MMI) couplers are optical integrated components widely used in photonic integrated circuits. Couplers with two fixed coupling ratios: 85/15 and 15/85 are studied in this paper. Low-loss MMI couplers are designed and fabricated. Excitation of the first-order mode in access waveguides of MMI couplers can influence the excess losses and the coupling ratio of these components. The effect of the first-order mode excitation was simulated and confirmed by the experimental results, which are presented in this paper.

Keywords

integrated optics; optical couplers; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical waveguides; access waveguides; coupling ratio; excess losses; first-order mode; low-loss MMI couplers; optical integrated components; photonic integrated circuits; unbalanced MMI couplers; unbalanced multimode interference couplers; Circuit simulation; Couplers; Coupling circuits; Integrated optics; Interference; Optical devices; Optical interferometry; Optical sensors; Optical waveguide components; Optical waveguides;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2004.831061

Filename

1316955