Silicon microphotonic circuits for telecommunication applications

Abstract:

High-index-contrast microphotonic circuits enable strong confinement of light in nanometer-scale waveguide cross-sections with moderately low propagation losses, and high-Q (low radiation loss) resonators with a large free spectral range (FSR). These unique characteristics make high-index-contrast microphotonics ideally suited for the realization of reconfigurable and tunable optical add-drop multiplexers (R/T-OADMs) integrated on a chip.

In this talk, a number of advances are described that enable fully functional R/T-OADMs based on silicon and silicon nitride waveguides and microring resonators. Concepts, design and first experimental demonstrations are described for telecom-grade, high-order microring channel add-drop filters, including schemes for broadband polarization-independent operation and wide tunability; of fully hitless switching (complete disabling of the amplitude and phase response) of resonant filters that allows error-free reconfiguration of a channel add-drop filter on a live wavelength-division-multiplexed (WDM) network; and of several other new device geometries including loop-coupled resonant structures that allow flat-top, dispersionless filters and optical delay lines; and efficient waveguide-crossing arrays based on low-loss Bloch waves.

This technology also holds promise for the realization of complete optical networks integrated on a chip to enable the progression of future multicore microprocessors, for signal processing applications such as high-sampling-rate and high-resolution analog-to-digital converters, and for optomechanical systems on a chip where micromachines are manipulated by guided-wave optical electromagnetic forces.

Miloš Popović Optics & Quantum Electronics Group MIT, Cambridge, MA USA Tel: +1 617 253-8302 Mobilni u Srbiji: 064 9918182