Xiaowei Guan

Ultra-compact broadband higher order-mode pass filter fabricated in a silicon waveguide for multimode photonics

An ultra-compact and broadband higher order-mode pass filter in a 1D photonic crystal silicon waveguide is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The photonic crystal is designed for the lower order mode to work in the photonic band gap, while the higher order mode is located in the air band. Consequently, light on the lower order mode is prohibited to pass through the filter, while light on a higher order mode can be converted to a Bloch mode in the photonic crystal and pass through the filter with low insertion loss. As an example, we fabricate a ∼15-μm-long first-order-mode pass filter that filters out the fundamental mode and provides a measured insertion loss of ∼1.8  dB for the first-order-mode pass signals. The extinction ratio is measured to be around 50 dB (with a variation of ±10  dB due to the detection limitation of the measurement setup) in the measured wavelength range from 1480 to 1580 nm. Additionally, calculations predict the extinction ratio to be larger than 50 dB in a 170 nm broad bandwidth.

Optical temperature sensor with enhanced sensitivity by employing hybrid waveguides in a silicon Mach-Zehnder interferometer.

We report on a novel design of an on-chip optical temperature sensor based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer configuration where the two arms consist of hybrid waveguides providing opposite temperature-dependent phase changes to enhance the temperature sensitivity of the sensor. The sensitivity of the fabricated sensor with silicon/polymer hybrid waveguides is measured to be 172 pm/°C, which is two times larger than a conventional all-silicon optical temperature sensor (~80 pm/°C). Moreover, a design with silicon/titanium dioxide hybrid waveguides is by calculation expected to have a sensitivity as high as 775 pm/°C. The proposed design is found to be design-flexible and robust to fabrication errors.

Compact titanium dioxide waveguides with high nonlinearity at telecommunication wavelengths

Dense integration of photonic integrated circuits demands waveguides simultaneously fulfilling requirements on compactness, low loss, high nonlinearity, and capabilities for mass production. In this work, titanium dioxide waveguides with a thick core of 380 nm exhibiting a compact mode size (0.43 μm2) and a low loss (5.4 ± 1 dB/cm) at telecommunication wavelengths around 1550 nm have been fabricated and measured. A microring resonator having a 50 μm radius has been measured to have a loaded quality factor of 53500. Four-wave mixing experiments reveal a nonlinear parameter for the waveguides of 21-34 W-1 m-1 corresponding to a nonlinear index around 2.3-3.6 x 10-18 m2/W, which results in a wavelength conversion efficiency of -36.2 dB. These performances, together with the potentially simple dispersion engineering to the fabricated waveguides by the post processes, yield a strong promise for the titanium dioxide waveguides applied in photonic integrated circuits, especially for nonlinear implementations.

Compact high-efficiency vortex beam emitter based on a silicon photonics micro-ring

Photonic integrated devices that emit vortex beam carrying orbital angular momentum are becoming key components for multiple applications. Here we propose and demonstrate a high-efficiency vortex beam emitter based on a silicon micro-ring resonator integrated with a metal mirror. Such a compact emitter is capable of generating vortex beams with a high efficiency and small divergence angle. Vector vortex beams of various topological charges are selectively generated by the emitter at different wavelengths with an emission efficiency of up to 37%.

All-silicon thermal independent Mach-Zehnder interferometer with multimode waveguides

A novel all-silicon thermal independent Mach-Zehnder interferometer consisting of two multimode waveguide arms having equal lengths and widths but transmitting different modes is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The interferometer has a temperature sensitivity smaller than 8pm/°C in a wavelength range of 18nm.

Silicon photonic thermometer operating on multiple polarizations

A silicon photonics optical thermometer simultaneously operating on the multiple polarizations is designed and experimentally demonstrated. Measured sensitivities are 86pm/°C and 48pm/°C for the transverse-electric and transverse-magnetic polarizations, respectively.

On-chip mode division multiplexing technologies

Space division multiplexing (SDM) is currently widely investigated in order to provide enhanced capacity thanks to the utilization of space as a new degree of multiplexing freedom in both optical fiber communication and on-chip interconnects. Basic components allowing the processing of spatial modes are critical for SDM applications. Here we present such building blocks implemented on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platform. These include fabrication tolerant wideband (de)multiplexers, ultra-compact mode converters and (de)multiplexers designed by topology optimization, and mode filters using one-dimensional (1D) photonic crystal silicon waveguides. We furthermore use the fabricated devices to demonstrate on-chip point-to-point mode division multiplexing transmission, and all-optical signal processing by mode-selective wavelength conversion. Finally, we report an efficient silicon photonic integrated circuit mode (de)multiplexer for few-mode fibers (FMFs).

Flat-top drop filter based on a single topology optimized photonic crystal cavity

Outperforming conventional design concepts, a flat-top drop filter has been designed by applying 3D topology optimization to a single waveguide-coupled L3 photonic crystal cavity. Measurements on the design fabricated in silicon-on-insulator material reveal that the pass-band of the drop channel is flat within 0.44 dB over a wavelength range of 9.7 nm with an insertion loss lower than 0.85 dB.

Four-Wave Mixing in Silicon-Rich Nitride Waveguides

We demonstrate four-wave mixing wavelength conversion in silicon-rich nitride waveguides which are a promising alternative to silicon for nonlinear applications. The obtained conversion efficiency reaches -13.6 dB while showing no significant nonlinear loss.