Parametric analysis and comparative study of multimode waveguides on lithium niobate-on-insulator and silicon-on-insulator platforms

Abstract. Multimode waveguides on lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) and silicon-on-insulator (SOI) platforms are numerically investigated in buried, rib, and strip configurations. Performance of waveguides is compared in terms of waveguide cross-sectional area, dispersion, mode hybridization, and power confinement for both quasi-transverse electric and quasi-transverse magnetic modes. Tall waveguides with single mode in the horizontal direction, supporting higher order modes in the vertical direction, are analyzed. Also, wide waveguides with single mode in the vertical direction, supporting higher order modes in the horizontal direction, are studied. Designs that overcome mode hybridization are proposed, which are well suited for applications such as optical interconnects. LNOI waveguides were found to exhibit lower dispersion in all the configurations, with power confinement and physical dimensions comparable to those of SOI waveguides. The results are instrumental in design optimization of multimode components for on-chip mode-division multiplexing schemes and multiparameter sensing applications. Electro-optic effect is also illustrated in a buried multimode LNOI waveguide that is largely useful in modulation and switching applications.

[1]  Alberto Peruzzo,et al.  Ultra-low loss photonic circuits in lithium niobate on insulator. , 2017, Optics express.

[2]  Stefan Nolte,et al.  Supersymmetric mode converters , 2014, Nature Communications.

[3]  F. Baida,et al.  Enhanced Electro-optical Lithium Niobate Photonic Crystal Wire Waveguide on a Smart-cut Thin Film References and Links , 2022 .

[4]  Sailing He,et al.  Silicon Multimode Photonic Integrated Devices For On-Chip Mode-Division-Multiplexed Optical Interconnects , 2013 .

[5]  Hao Jia,et al.  General architectures for on-chip optical space and mode switching , 2018 .

[6]  K. Essa,et al.  Multimode waveguide based directional coupler , 2016 .

[7]  Maria-Pilar Bernal,et al.  Analysis of ultra-compact waveguide modes in thin film lithium niobate , 2015 .

[8]  M. Thompson,et al.  Generating, manipulating and measuring entanglement and mixture with a reconfigurable photonic circuit , 2012 .

[9]  David E. Zelmon,et al.  Infrared corrected Sellmeier coefficients for congruently grown lithium niobate and 5 mol. magnesium oxide doped lithium niobate , 1997 .

[10]  K. Leosson,et al.  High index contrast polymer waveguide platform for integrated biophotonics. , 2010, Optics express.

[11]  Dennis W Prather,et al.  110 GHz CMOS compatible thin film LiNbO3 modulator on silicon. , 2016, Optics express.

[12]  K. Gallo,et al.  Modal birefringence-free lithium niobate waveguides. , 2017, Optics letters.

[13]  Daoxin Dai,et al.  Multimode optical waveguide enabling microbends with low inter-mode crosstalk for mode-multiplexed optical interconnects. , 2014, Optics express.

[14]  Ming Lu,et al.  Asymmetric Y junctions in silicon waveguides for on-chip mode-division multiplexing. , 2013, Optics letters.

[15]  S. Y. Siew,et al.  Ultra-low loss ridge waveguides on lithium niobate via argon ion milling and gas clustered ion beam smoothening. , 2018, Optics express.

[16]  L. O'Faolain,et al.  Ultrashort Photonic Crystal Optical Switch Actuated by a Microheater , 2009, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[17]  Daoxin Dai,et al.  Mode hybridization and conversion in silicon-on-insulator nanowires with angled sidewalls. , 2015, Optics express.

[18]  F Y Gardes,et al.  40 Gb/s silicon photonics modulator for TE and TM polarisations. , 2011, Optics express.

[19]  Archana Kaushalram,et al.  Comparative analysis of ultra-compact few-mode photonic wires on LNOI and SOI platforms , 2019, OPTO.

[20]  H. Shalaby.  Bi-Directional Coupler as a Mode-Division Multiplexer/Demultiplexer , 2016, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[21]  Meir Orenstein,et al.  Multimode add-drop multiplexing by adiabatic linearly tapered coupling. , 2005, Optics express.

[22]  M. Koshiba,et al.  Mode multi/demultiplexing with parallel waveguide for mode division multiplexed transmission. , 2014, Optics express.

[23]  Zhongyuan Fu,et al.  Simultaneous detection of refractive index, temperature and stress realized by using a three-mode planar photonic crystal L5 cavity , 2018, Optics Communications.

[24]  Wei Wang,et al.  Simultaneous Wavelength- and Mode-Division (De)multiplexing for High-Capacity On-Chip Data Transmission Link , 2016, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[25]  Jinzhong Yu,et al.  Two-mode multiplexer and demultiplexer based on adiabatic couplers. , 2013, Optics letters.

[26]  H. Suzuki,et al.  High-Speed Wavelength-Tunable Optical Filter Using Cascaded Mach–Zehnder Interferometers With Apodized Sampled Gratings , 2008, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[27]  Byung-Tak Lee,et al.  Mode-order converter in a multimode waveguide. , 2003, Optics letters.

[28]  Tao Chu,et al.  Optical directional coupler based on Si-wire waveguides , 2005, First IEEE International Conference on Group IV Photonics, 2004..

[29]  D. Van Thourhout,et al.  Silicon-on-Insulator Spectral Filters Fabricated With CMOS Technology , 2010, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[30]  Huiying Hu,et al.  A compact photonic crystal micro-cavity on a single-mode lithium niobate photonic wire , 2016 .

[31]  Guang-Can Guo,et al.  Second harmonic generation in nano-structured thin-film lithium niobate waveguides. , 2016, Optics express.

[32]  Ting Hu,et al.  Silicon Add-Drop Filter Based on Multimode Bragg Sidewall Gratings and Adiabatic Couplers , 2017, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[33]  M. Greenberg,et al.  Simultaneous dual mode add/drop multiplexers for optical interconnects buses , 2006 .

[34]  Intermodal Group Delay in Multimode Waveguides on LNOI and SOI for Optical Interconnects , 2019, 2019 Conference on Lasers and Electro-Optics Europe & European Quantum Electronics Conference (CLEO/Europe-EQEC).

[35]  Dimitris Pavlidis,et al.  A Simple Three Branch Optical Power Splitter Design based on III-Nitride Semiconductor for Optical Telecommunication , 2016 .

[36]  Kresten Yvind,et al.  Topology optimized mode conversion in a photonic crystal waveguide , 2013, 2013 IEEE Photonics Conference.

[37]  Chi-Wai Chow,et al.  2.6 Tbit/s On-Chip Optical Interconnect Supporting Mode-Division-Multiplexing and PAM-4 Signal , 2018, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[38]  Shafeek A. Samad,et al.  Tunable Large Dispersion in Hybrid Modes of Lithium Niobate-on-Insulator Multimode Waveguides , 2019, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[39]  Jianyi Yang,et al.  Mode multi/demultiplexer based on cascaded asymmetric Y-junctions. , 2013, Optics express.

[40]  Jing Xu,et al.  On-chip two-mode division multiplexing using tapered directional coupler-based mode multiplexer and demultiplexer. , 2013, Optics express.

[41]  Chin-Lin Chen,et al.  Foundations for guided-wave optics , 2006 .

[42]  Michal Lipson,et al.  WDM-compatible mode-division multiplexing on a silicon chip , 2014, Nature Communications.

[43]  Huiying Hu,et al.  Lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) for micro‐photonic devices , 2012 .