Daoxin Dai

A silicon-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a metal cap for a nano-scale light confinement

A hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a metal cap on a silicon-on-insulator rib (or slab) is presented. There is a low-index material nano-layer between the Si layer and the metal layer. The field enhancement in the nano-layer provides a nano-scale confinement of the optical field (e.g., 50 nm x 5 nm) when operates at the optical wavelength lambda = 1550 nm. The theoretical investigation also shows that the present hybrid plasmonic waveguide has a low loss and consequently a relatively long propagation distance (on the order of several tens of lambda).

Silicon mode (de)multiplexer enabling high capacity photonic networks-on-chip with a single-wavelength-carrier light.

A small silicon mode (de)multiplexer with cascaded asymmetrical directional couplers is demonstrated experimentally. As an example, a four channel mode (de)multiplexer is designed and realized for TM polarization. The fabricated mode (de)multiplexer has a low excess loss (<1 dB) as well as low crosstalk (≤23 dB) over a broad wavelength range (~20 nm). More channels can be achieved with two sets of orthogonal-polarization modes (e.g., 2N=8) multiplexed when desired.

Ultrasmall Si-nanowire-based polarization rotator

A polarization rotator based on asymmetrical Si nanowires is presented and optimized for high polarization rotation efficiency (almost 100%). The present polarization rotator has a very small conversion length (~10 μm) and consequently becomes very compact. The analysis of the wavelength dependence shows the present polarization rotator has a broad bandwidth (~120 nm) for high conversion efficiency (>97%). The tolerance to various fabrication errors is also numerically studied. To compensate the fabrication error, a postcompensation method is introduced by modifying the refractive index of the up-cladding.

Low-loss hybrid plasmonic waveguide with double low-index nano-slots

A hybrid plasmonic waveguide with double low-index nano-slots is introduced. The fabrication is simple and compatible with the standard processes for SOI wafers. The theoretical investigation shows that the present hybrid plasmonic waveguide has a low loss and consequently a relatively long propagation distance (at the order of several tens of lambda). For TE polarization, there is a strong field enhancement in the double nano-slots. More power is confined in the low-index nano-slots for a smaller core width. For a 50 nm-wide hybrid plasmonic waveguide with double 10 nm-wide slots, the power confinement factor in the nano-slots is as high as 85% and the effective area is as small as 0.007 microm(2) at 1550 nm. Consequently, the power density in the nano-slots becomes very high, e.g., >120 microm(-2), which is very desired for many applications. For the present hybrid plasmonic waveguide, the lateral dimension could be less than 50 nm and the calculated decoupled separation for two parallel identical waveguides is only 0.62 microm, which is helpful to realize photonic integration circuits with ultra-high integration density.

Ultracompact low-loss coupler between strip and slot waveguides

We present both theoretical and experimental results of an ultracompact waveguide coupler that is capable of highly efficient coupling of light from strip waveguides to slot waveguides, and vice versa. By optimizing the geometrical parameters, it is possible to achieve extremely low-loss coupling. A coupling efficiency of 97% has been obtained experimentally while keeping the overall size down to the range below 10 mum. Further analysis shows that the proposed coupler has relatively high tolerance to fabrication errors and is wavelength insensitive.

Silicon-based on-chip multiplexing technologies and devices for Peta-bit optical interconnects

Abstract An effective solution to enhance the capacity of an optical-interconnect link is utilizing advanced multiplexing technologies, like wavelength-division-multiplexing (WDM), polarization-division multiplexing (PDM), spatial-division multiplexing (SDM), bi-directional multiplexing, etc. On-chip (de)multiplexers are necessary as key components for realizing these multiplexing systems and they are desired to have small footprints due to the limited physical space for on-chip optical interconnects. As silicon photonics has provided a very attractive platform to build ultrasmall photonic integrated devices with CMOS-compatible processes, in this paper we focus on the discussion of silicon-based (de)multiplexers, including WDM filters, PDM devices, and SDM devices. The demand of devices to realize a hybrid multiplexing technology (combining WDM, PDM and SDM) as well as a bidirectional multiplexing technologies are also discussed to achieve Peta-bit optical interconnects.

Ultracompact and broadband polarization beam splitter utilizing the evanescent coupling between a hybrid plasmonic waveguide and a silicon nanowire

An ultracompact polarization beam splitter (PBS) is proposed based on an asymmetrical directional coupler consisting of a silicon hybrid plasmonic waveguide (HPW) and a silicon nanowire. The widths of the two coupling waveguides are chosen so that the phase-matching condition is satisfied for TE polarization only while the phase mismatch is significant for TM polarization. A sharply bent silicon HPW is connected at the thru port to play the role of polarizer by utilizing its polarization-dependent loss. With the present principle, the designed PBS has a footprint as small as only ~1.9 μm × 3.7 μm, which is the shortest PBS reported until now, even when large waveguide dimensions (e.g., the waveguide widths w(1,2) = ~300 nm and the gap width w(gap) = ~200 nm) are chosen to simplify the fabrication process. The numerical simulations show that the designed PBS has a very broad band (~120 nm) with an extinction ratio >12 dB and a large fabrication tolerance to allow a waveguide width variation of ± 30 nm.

Ultracompact polarization beam splitter based on a dielectric–hybrid plasmonic–dielectric coupler

An ultracompact polarization beam splitter (PBS) based on a dielectric-hybrid plasmonic-dielectric coupler is proposed. The device utilizes the polarization-dependent nature of hybrid plasmonic waveguides. By choosing proper waveguide parameters, a 2×5.1 μm2 PBS (including S-bends) with extinction ratios over 15 dB and insertion losses below 1.5 dB in the full C-band should be achievable. The effect of fabrication errors is also investigated.

Gain enhancement in a hybrid plasmonic nano-waveguide with a low-index or high-index gain medium

A theoretical investigation of a nano-scale hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a low-index as well as high-index gain medium is presented. The present hybrid plasmonic waveguide structure consists of a Si substrate, a buffer layer, a high-index dielectric rib, a low-index cladding, a low-index nano-slot, and an inverted metal rib. Due to the field enhancement in the nano-slot region, a gain enhancement is observed, i.e., the ratio ∂G/∂g >1, where g and G are the gains of the gain medium and the TM fundamental mode of the hybrid plasmonic waveguide, respectively. For a hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a core width of w(co)=30nm and a slot height of h(slot)=50nm, the intrinsic loss could be compensated when using a low-index medium with a moderate gain of 176dB/cm. When introducing the high-index gain medium for the hybrid plasmonic waveguide, a higher gain is obtained by choosing a wider core width. For the high-index gain case with h(slot)=50nm and w(co)=500nm, a gain of about 200dB/cm also suffices for the compensation of the intrinsic loss.

Realization of an ultra-short silicon polarization beam splitter with an asymmetrical bent directional coupler

An ultra-short (~10 μm long) polarization beam splitter (PBS) based on an asymmetrical bent directional coupler (DC) is demonstrated experimentally by using silicon-on-insulator nanowires. The bent DC is designed to cross-couple TM polarized light completely while there is almost no coupling for TE polarization. Grating couplers are introduced at both ends of the PBS for efficient coupling to single-mode fibers. The measurement results show that the extinction ratios of the fabricated ultra-short PBS are higher than 10 dB for both polarizations in a broad wavelength range. It is also shown that the present PBS has a large fabrication tolerance.