High performance and small footprint spot size converters based on SWG metamaterial lenses

Spot size converters with high expansion ratio are required in a variety of situations. This is the case of non-focusing Silicon on Insulator (SOI) fiber-to-chip grating couplers, which typically require long adiabatic tapers (Ltaper >100μm) from the narrow single-mode waveguides (WSi-wire ~ 500nm) to the wide grating region (Wgrating ~ 15μm). Here, we explore the potential of subwavelength grating (SWG) dielectric metamaterials to implement integrated GRaded INdex (GRIN) lenses to expand the mode field. Our designs achieve the desired Beam Expansion (BE) with insertion losses below 1dB over a distance of only LBE ~ 17μm.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Programa Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad (cofinanciado FEDER), (TEC2016-80718-R); Universidad de Málaga. Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (MECD) (FPU16/06121); Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

All-optical switching using nonlinear subwavelength Mach-Zehnder on silicon

We report on the experimental demonstration of ultrafast all-optical switching and wavelength down-conversion based on a novel nonlinear Mach-Zehnder interferometer with subwavelength grating and wire waveguides. Unlike other periodic waveguides such as line-defects in a 2D photonic crystal lattice, a subwavelength grating waveguide confines the light as a conventional index-guided structure and does not exhibit optically resonant behaviour. Since the device had no dedicated port to input optical signal to control switching a new approach was also implemented for all-optical switching control

Designing anisotropy with waveguide subwavelength structures

Silicon sub-wavelength structures have become a versatile design tool for practical, high-performance integrated optical devices, ranging from highly efficient grating couplers to ultra-broadband beam-splitters. Recently, some of the basic anisotropic properties of these structures have been proposed for advance device design. Here we explore these properties in detail, from the underlying physics to emerging applications in on-chip polarization management.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad, Programa Estatal de Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación Orientada a los Retos de la Sociedad (cofinanciado FEDER), Proyectos TEC2016-80718-R, TEC2015-71127-C2-1-R (FPI scholarship BES-2016-077798), and IJCI-2016-30484, the Community of Madrid (S2013/MIT-2790), the Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech, the EMPIR program (JRP-i22 14IND13 Photind), co-financed by the participating countries and the European Union’s 2020 research and innovation program, and the Horizon 2020 research and innovation program under the Marie Sklodowska-Curie grant No. 734331

Tilted subwavelength gratings: controlling anisotropy in metamaterial nanophotonic waveguides

Subwavelength grating (SWG) structures are an essential tool in silicon photonics, enabling the synthesis of metamaterials with a controllable refractive index. Here we propose, for the first time to the best of our knowledge, tilting the grating elements to gain control over the anisotropy of the metamaterial. Rigorous finite difference time domain simulations demonstrate that a 45° tilt results in an effective index variation on the fundamental TE mode of 0.23 refractive index units, whereas the change in the TM mode is 20 times smaller. Our simulation predictions are corroborated by experimental results. We furthermore propose an accurate theoretical model for designing tilted SWG structures based on rotated uniaxial crystals that is functional over a wide wavelength range and for both the fundamental and higher order modes. The proposed control over anisotropy opens promising venues in polarization management devices and transformation optics in silicon photonics.Universidad de Málaga (UMA); Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (IJCI-2016-30484, TEC2015-71127-C2-R, TEC2016-80718-R); Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (MECD) (FPU16/06762); European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); Comunidad de Madrid (SINFOTON-CM S2013/MIT-2790); European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015:SENSIBLE, JRP-i22 14IND13 Photind)

Designing polarization management devices by tilting subwavelength grating structures

Subwavelength gratings (SWG) are periodic structures which behave as controllable homogeneous metamaterials. SWGs are extremely interesting when they are used in platforms with a limited choice of material refractive indices, enabling the design of a myriad of high-performance devices. Here we present a novel technique to gain control over the intrinsic anisotropy of the synthesized metamaterial. We show that tilting the silicon segments in a SWG structure mainly affects the in-plane (TE) modes, with little impact on the out-of-plane (TM) modes. Moreover, we present a methodology to quickly but accurately calculate the modes of a tilted periodic structure modeling the structure as a rotated uniaxial crystal which can be solved with an anisotropic mode solver. Measurements on a set of fabricated tilted SWG waveguides validate our simulation results. By using the presented technique, we design a polarization beam splitter based on a 2x2 multimode interferometer. The design is based on the optimization of the tilting angle to tone the beat length of the TE modes to be a half of the beat length of the TM modes.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO) (IJCI-2016-30484, TEC2015-71127-C2-R, TEC2016-80718-R); Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte (MECD) (FPU16/06762); European Regional Development Fund (ERDF); Comunidad de Madrid (SINFOTON-CM S2013/MIT-2790); European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) (H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015:SENSIBLE, JRP-i22 14IND13 Photind)

A general approach for robust integrated polarization rotators

Integrated polarization rotators suffer from very high sensitivity to fabrication errors. A polarization rotator scheme that substantially increases fabrication tolerances is proposed. In the proposed scheme, two tunable polarization phase shifters are used to connect three rotator waveguide sections. By means of properly setting the polarization phase shifters, fabrication errors are compensated and perfect polarization rotation is achieved. Analytical conditions are shown that determine the maximum deviation that can be corrected with the proposed scheme. A design example is discussed, where the thermo-optic effect is used to provide the required tunable polarization phase shifting. Calculated 40dB extinction ratio is shown in presence of fabrication errors that would yield a 4dB extinction ratio in the conventional approach. © (2013) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.The authors want to aknowledge Universidad de Málaga alaga, Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucia Tech for their support

Automatic design of high-performance fiber-chip surface grating couplers based on Floquet-Bloch mode analysis

We propose a new strategy to automatically design highly efficient fiber-chip surface grating couplers. High performance designs are achieved with a substantially reduced computational cost by combining Floquet-Bloch mode analysis with a multi-objective optimization technique (genetic algorithms)

Ultra-broadband Silicon Photonic Multimode Interference Coupler

In integrated optics, multimode interference couplers (MMIs) are used as light-wave splitters and combiners in a wide variety of devices ranging from spectrometers to sensors and coherent optical receivers. While their design and operation is generally well understood [1], the operational bandwidth remains limited. Here we present a sub-wavelength structured MMI, shown in Fig. 1(a), that overcomes this limitation and experimentally demonstrate a bandwidth exceeding 300nm at telecom wavelength, with more than 500nm bandwidth potentially attainable (as per 3D-FDTD simulations).Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech