Theoretical and experimental studies of a spot-size transformer with integrated waveguide for polarization insensitive optical amplifiers

The simple fabrication technology of an active waveguide for polarization insensitive optical amplifiers, integrated with tapers and a passive waveguide for fiber coupling, is presented. The spot size transformation along the taper, yielding a mode expansion factor of more than 9 in horizontal direction and about 2 in vertical direction, is experimentally verified and the results are compared to theoretical computations. Using a cleaved single mode fiber, the coupling loss is as low as 2.6 dB with -1-dB positional tolerances of 2.2 μm and 1.5 μm in vertical and horizontal directions. Besides relaxing on fiber coupling, the large spot size transformation in horizontal direction allows for a drastic reduction of the reflection coefficient to less than 10^-3 at a facet tilted by 4° with respect to the waveguide axis