Flexible dispersion engineering using polymer patterning in nanophotonic waveguides

We demonstrate the engineering of waveguide dispersion by lithographically patterning the polymer cladding on silicon nitride waveguide resonators. Both normal and anomalous dispersion, ranging from − 462 to 409 ps/nm/km, can be achieved for the same waveguide dimension within an integrated photonic chip. In the meantime, this simple process shows no impact on the waveguide loss and the quality factor of the waveguide resonators, offering flexibility in tailoring designable dispersion for a universal photonic platform. In addition, by adjusting the coverage ratio of cladding, relatively low dispersion (≈ − 130 ps/nm/km) is also demonstrated in the same waveguide resonator, yielding the potentials for zero-dispersive waveguide resonators by a proper coverage ratio of the polymer cladding.