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High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance
Efficient power splitting is a fundamental functionality in silicon photonic integrated circuits, but state-of-the-art power-division architectures are hampered by limited operational bandwidth, high sensitivity to fabrication errors or large footprints. In particular, traditional Y-junction power s...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
MDPI
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8156219/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34069199 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11051304 |
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author | Fernández de Cabo, Raquel González-Andrade, David Cheben, Pavel Velasco, Aitor V. |
author_facet | Fernández de Cabo, Raquel González-Andrade, David Cheben, Pavel Velasco, Aitor V. |
author_sort | Fernández de Cabo, Raquel |
collection | PubMed |
description | Efficient power splitting is a fundamental functionality in silicon photonic integrated circuits, but state-of-the-art power-division architectures are hampered by limited operational bandwidth, high sensitivity to fabrication errors or large footprints. In particular, traditional Y-junction power splitters suffer from fundamental mode losses due to limited fabrication resolution near the junction tip. In order to circumvent this limitation, we propose a new type of high-performance Y-junction power splitter that incorporates subwavelength metamaterials. Full three-dimensional simulations show a fundamental mode excess loss below 0.1 dB in an ultra-broad bandwidth of 300 nm (1400–1700 nm) when optimized for a fabrication resolution of 50 nm, and under 0.3 dB in a 350 nm extended bandwidth (1350–1700 nm) for a 100 nm resolution. Moreover, analysis of fabrication tolerances shows robust operation for the fundamental mode to etching errors up to ±20 nm. A proof-of-concept device provides an initial validation of its operation principle, showing experimental excess losses lower than 0.2 dB in a 195 nm bandwidth for the best-case resolution scenario (i.e., 50 nm). |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-8156219 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | MDPI |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-81562192021-05-28 High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance Fernández de Cabo, Raquel González-Andrade, David Cheben, Pavel Velasco, Aitor V. Nanomaterials (Basel) Article Efficient power splitting is a fundamental functionality in silicon photonic integrated circuits, but state-of-the-art power-division architectures are hampered by limited operational bandwidth, high sensitivity to fabrication errors or large footprints. In particular, traditional Y-junction power splitters suffer from fundamental mode losses due to limited fabrication resolution near the junction tip. In order to circumvent this limitation, we propose a new type of high-performance Y-junction power splitter that incorporates subwavelength metamaterials. Full three-dimensional simulations show a fundamental mode excess loss below 0.1 dB in an ultra-broad bandwidth of 300 nm (1400–1700 nm) when optimized for a fabrication resolution of 50 nm, and under 0.3 dB in a 350 nm extended bandwidth (1350–1700 nm) for a 100 nm resolution. Moreover, analysis of fabrication tolerances shows robust operation for the fundamental mode to etching errors up to ±20 nm. A proof-of-concept device provides an initial validation of its operation principle, showing experimental excess losses lower than 0.2 dB in a 195 nm bandwidth for the best-case resolution scenario (i.e., 50 nm). MDPI 2021-05-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8156219/ /pubmed/34069199 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11051304 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
spellingShingle | Article Fernández de Cabo, Raquel González-Andrade, David Cheben, Pavel Velasco, Aitor V. High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance |
title | High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance |
title_full | High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance |
title_fullStr | High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance |
title_full_unstemmed | High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance |
title_short | High-Performance On-Chip Silicon Beamsplitter Based on Subwavelength Metamaterials for Enhanced Fabrication Tolerance |
title_sort | high-performance on-chip silicon beamsplitter based on subwavelength metamaterials for enhanced fabrication tolerance |
topic | Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8156219/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34069199 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/nano11051304 |
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