Study on compactness of planar waveguide based integrated optic couplers using tooth shaped grating assisted geometry

Abstract

The introduction of Photonic Integrated Devices (PID) for applications in high speed optical networks providing multiple services to more number of users is indispensable as this requires large scale integration (LSI) and the miniaturization of PID device components to microscale platform has attracted immense attention from the researchers and entrepreneurs. In this paper, we present a comparative study on compactness of basic PID components using tooth shaped grating assisted (TSGA) geometry. The basic PID components such as Directional Coupler (DC), two mode interference (TMI) coupler and multimode interference (MMI) coupler have been designed using TSGA geometry in the coupling region and the coupling characteristics for the same have been estimated using a mathematical model based on sinusoidal mode simple effective index method (SM-SEIM). The dependence of modal power in the coupling region on the waveguide separation gap and coupling gap refractive index has been studied. From the estimated dependences of beat length and access waveguide length on waveguide separation gap with permissible propagation loss ~0.15 dB/cm, it has been found that the grating assisted TMI coupler (GA-TMI) is ~0.5 times lower than that of grating assisted DC (GA-DC) and ~0.44 times lower than grating assisted MMI (GA-MMI) coupler. Further, it is seen that the device length including access waveguide length of GA-MMI coupler is less than that of GA-TMI coupler and GA-DC. The SM-SEIM based numerical results are then compared with beam propagation method (BPM) results obtained by using commercially available optiBPM software.