Keywords

integrated optics, polymer waveguides, beam splitters, resonators, photonic integrated circuits

Abstract

We demonstrate air-trench splitters in low index contrast perfluorocyclobutyl (PFCB) waveguides. Splitters are fabricated by etching 800 nm wide high aspect ratio (18:1) trenches. The measured optical loss is 0.4 dB/splitter. The reflection/transmission splitting ratio is 0.859/0.141, which closely matches two-dimensional finite difference time domain (2DFDTD) simulation results. Air-trench splitters and bends are used to demonstrate an ultra-compact ring resonator (RR) with a size reduction of 1,700 compared to a RR based on traditional curved waveguides in the same material system. A comparison between the RR’s measured and analytically calculated performance shows close agreement when splitter and bend losses are taken into account.

Original Publication Citation

N. Rahmanian, S. Kim, Y. Lin, G. P. Nordin, "Air-trench splitters for ultra-compact ring resonators in low refractive index contrast waveguides," Optics Express 16(1), pp. 456-465 (28). http://www.opticsexpress.org/abstract.cfm?id=14878.