Leakage loss and phase variation of a buried directional coupler on a silicon substrate

Effects of the presence of a silicon substrate on the leakage loss and phase variation of silica-based parallel waveguides are investigated using the imaginary-distance beam-propagation method. The leakage loss is evaluated as a function of the distance between the core and the substrate. Calculation shows that the loss of the directional coupler can be estimated using the single waveguide with the same cross section. It is also found that the beat length becomes longer than that without the substrate except the case where the core is extremely close to the substrate. In terms of the loss reduction, the insertion of a SiO₂ film with a 1-mum thickness corresponds to an increase in the distance between the core and the substrate without the SiO₂ film by about 2 mum