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Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine

A light flow controller that can regulate the three-port optical power in both lossless and lossy modus is realized on a programmable multimode waveguide engine. The microheaters on the waveguide chip mimic the tunable “pixels” that can continuously adjust the local refractive index. Compared to the...

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Autores principales: Chen, Tao, Dang, Zhangqi, Deng, Zeyu, Ding, Zhenming, Zhang, Ziyang
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9699270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36422419
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi13111990
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author Chen, Tao
Dang, Zhangqi
Deng, Zeyu
Ding, Zhenming
Zhang, Ziyang
author_facet Chen, Tao
Dang, Zhangqi
Deng, Zeyu
Ding, Zhenming
Zhang, Ziyang
author_sort Chen, Tao
collection PubMed
description A light flow controller that can regulate the three-port optical power in both lossless and lossy modus is realized on a programmable multimode waveguide engine. The microheaters on the waveguide chip mimic the tunable “pixels” that can continuously adjust the local refractive index. Compared to the conventional method where the tuning takes place only on single-mode waveguides, the proposed structure is more compact and requires less electrodes. The local index changes in a multimode waveguide can alter the mode numbers, field distribution, and propagation constants of each individual mode, all of which can alter the multimode interference pattern significantly. However, these changes are mostly complex and not governed by analytical equations as in the single-mode case. Though numerical simulations can be performed to predict the device response, the thermal and electromagnetic computing involved is mostly time-consuming. Here, a multi-level search program is developed based on experiments only. It can reach a target output in real time by adjusting the microheaters collectively and iteratively. It can also jump over local optima and further improve the cost function on a global level. With only a simple waveguide structure and four microheaters, light can be routed freely into any of the three output ports with arbitrary power ratios, with and without extra attenuation. This work may trigger new ideas in developing compact and efficient photonic integrated devices for applications in optical communication and computing.
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spelling pubmed-96992702022-11-26 Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine Chen, Tao Dang, Zhangqi Deng, Zeyu Ding, Zhenming Zhang, Ziyang Micromachines (Basel) Article A light flow controller that can regulate the three-port optical power in both lossless and lossy modus is realized on a programmable multimode waveguide engine. The microheaters on the waveguide chip mimic the tunable “pixels” that can continuously adjust the local refractive index. Compared to the conventional method where the tuning takes place only on single-mode waveguides, the proposed structure is more compact and requires less electrodes. The local index changes in a multimode waveguide can alter the mode numbers, field distribution, and propagation constants of each individual mode, all of which can alter the multimode interference pattern significantly. However, these changes are mostly complex and not governed by analytical equations as in the single-mode case. Though numerical simulations can be performed to predict the device response, the thermal and electromagnetic computing involved is mostly time-consuming. Here, a multi-level search program is developed based on experiments only. It can reach a target output in real time by adjusting the microheaters collectively and iteratively. It can also jump over local optima and further improve the cost function on a global level. With only a simple waveguide structure and four microheaters, light can be routed freely into any of the three output ports with arbitrary power ratios, with and without extra attenuation. This work may trigger new ideas in developing compact and efficient photonic integrated devices for applications in optical communication and computing. MDPI 2022-11-16 /pmc/articles/PMC9699270/ /pubmed/36422419 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi13111990 Text en © 2022 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
Chen, Tao
Dang, Zhangqi
Deng, Zeyu
Ding, Zhenming
Zhang, Ziyang
Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine
title Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine
title_full Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine
title_fullStr Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine
title_full_unstemmed Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine
title_short Micro Light Flow Controller on a Programmable Waveguide Engine
title_sort micro light flow controller on a programmable waveguide engine
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9699270/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36422419
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/mi13111990
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