Polarization rotator with dimensioned rib waveguide and a polarization stabilizer
10935724 ยท 2021-03-02
Assignee
Inventors
Cpc classification
G02B6/2733
PHYSICS
International classification
Abstract
A polarization rotator and a polarization stabilizer. The polarization rotator includes a rib waveguide. The rib waveguide including: a slab portion; and a ridge portion, which is disposed along a surface of the slab portion. The slab portion has a first slab region whose width, as measured in a direction perpendicular to a guiding direction of the waveguide, increases from a first slab width to a second slab width along a first length, and the ridge portion has a first ridge region whose width, as measured in the same direction as the slab widths, decreases from a first ridge width to a second ridge width along the same first length; such that the rotator is configured to rotate the polarization of light during its transmission through the rib waveguide.
Claims
1. A polarization rotator, including a rib waveguide, the rib waveguide including: a slab portion; and a ridge portion, which is disposed along a surface of the slab portion; wherein: the slab portion has a first slab region whose width, as measured in a direction perpendicular to a guiding direction of the rib waveguide, increases from a first slab width to a second slab width along a first length, and the ridge portion has a first ridge region whose width, as measured in the same direction as the slab widths, decreases from a first ridge width to a second ridge width along the same first length; such that the polarization rotator is configured to rotate the polarization of light during its transmission through the rib waveguide.
2. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein the polarization rotator has a length along the guiding direction of the rib waveguide of no less than 400 m and no more than 950 m.
3. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein the rib waveguide has a height, as measured from a lower surface of the slab portion to an upper surface of the ridge portion, of no less than 0.5 m and no more than 1.5 m.
4. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein more than 50% of the rotation occurs as light passes along the first length.
5. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein the slab portion includes a second slab region whose width remains constant along a second length.
6. The polarization rotator of claim 5, wherein a guiding direction of the first slab region is substantially aligned with a guiding direction of the second slab region.
7. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein the first slab width is no less than 0.5 m and no more than 2 m.
8. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein the second slab width is no less than 1 m and no more than 2 m.
9. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein the ridge portion includes a second ridge region whose width remains constant along a second length.
10. The polarization rotator of claim 9, wherein a guiding direction of the first ridge region is at an angle greater than 0 with a guiding direction of the second ridge region.
11. The polarization rotator of claim 9, wherein the second length is no less than 100 m and no more than 150 m and/or the first length may be no less than 300 m and no more than 800 m.
12. The polarization rotator of claim 9, further including an output waveguide, connecting output ports of the second ridge region and second slab region to an output port of the polarization rotator, and whose width broadens outwards in a direction from the output ports of the second ridge region and the second slab region to the output port of the polarization rotator.
13. The polarization rotator of claim 1, wherein it is operable at a wavelength of no less than 1.1 m and no more than 1.7 m.
14. The polarization rotator of claim 1, further including an input waveguide, connecting an input port of the polarization rotator to input ports of the first ridge region and first slab region, and whose width tapers inwards in a direction from the input port of the polarization rotator to the input ports of the first ridge region and first slab region.
15. A polarization stabilizer, including: an input port; a polarization-dependent splitter, which is connected to the input port and has two output ports; and the polarization rotator of claim 1, connected to one of the output ports of the polarization-dependent splitter; wherein the polarization-dependent splitter divides light received at the input port into a transverse-magnetic portion and a transverse-electric portion, one of which is delivered to the output port connected to the polarization rotator.
16. The polarization stabilizer of claim 15, wherein the polarization rotator has an output port, connected to a first waveguide which includes at least one heater, said heater being operable to alter the phase of light transmitted through the first waveguide.
17. The polarization stabilizer of claim 16, wherein the polarization-dependent splitter is connected to a second waveguide, and both the second waveguide and the first waveguide are connected to respective input ports of a coupler.
18. The polarization stabilizer of claim 15, wherein the polarization-dependent splitter is formed of a first intermediate waveguide and a second intermediate waveguide, both of which are coupled to the input port and which are respectively coupled to the output ports.
19. The polarization stabilizer of claim 18, wherein the first intermediate waveguide has a width which reduces from a first width to a second width along a direction parallel to the guiding direction of the first intermediate waveguide.
20. The polarization stabilizer of claim 18, wherein the second intermediate waveguide has a width which increases from a first width to a second width along a direction parallel to the guiding direction of the second intermediate waveguide.
21. The polarization stabilizer of claim 15, wherein the polarization-dependent splitter is operable to provide TM0 polarized light at a first output port of the two output ports, and TE0 polarized light at a second output port of the two output ports.
22. The polarization stabilizer of claim 21, wherein the polarization rotator is connected to the first output port and is operable to rotate the received light so as to output TE0 polarized light.
Description
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
(1) Embodiments of the invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:
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DETAILED DESCRIPTION
(13) Aspects and embodiments of the present invention will now be discussed with reference to the accompanying figures. Further aspects and embodiments will be apparent to those skilled in the art. All documents mentioned in this text are incorporated herein by reference
(14) Notably, the device is able to perform direct conversion from a TM0 polarization state to a TE0 polarization state, i.e. not necessarily via a TE1 polarization state.
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(16) As discussed previously, the rib waveguide comprises a ridge portion and a slab portion. Each of these can be conceptually divided into first and second portions. Taking the slab portion first, it has a first slab portion 102a and a second slab portion 102b connected to one another. The width of the slab portion increases from w.sub.1, where the first slab portion connects to the input waveguide, to w.sub.2 where the first slab portion 102a connects to the second slab portion 102b over the length L.sub.1. The width of the second slab portion is substantially constant over the length L.sub.2 as shown.
(17) In contrast, a first ridge portion 103a decreases in width from w.sub.1, where the first ridge portion connects to the input waveguide, to w.sub.tip where the first ridge portion 103a connects to the second ridge portion 103b. The width of the second ridge portion is substantially constant, and the second ridge portion links the first ridge portion to the output waveguide. The output waveguide 105 can also be considered to have a slab portion 105a and a ridge portion 105b whose widths respectively increase from w.sub.2 and w.sub.tip to w.sub.io. The input waveguide 101 and output waveguide 105 in this example have a length of around 80 m. The second ridge portion 103b brings the ridge to the centre of the output waveguide 105. The distance from the input waveguideslab interface to the slaboutput waveguide interface, i.e. the length of the slab region or L.sub.1+L.sub.2, may be at least 520 m and no more than 820 m. The input and output waveguides may have a length of around 80 m.
(18) As was discussed previously, the majority of the rotation occurs along L.sub.1 i.e. in the first ridge portion and first slab portion. Advantageously, this means that the design is robust against variations in the tip width (w.sub.tip).
(19) In one example of the rotator discussed above, t=1 m, t.sub.slab=0.55 m, w.sub.1=0.75 m, w.sub.tip=0.5 m, w.sub.2=1.3 m, L.sub.1 takes a value of at least 400 m and no more than 700 m, and L.sub.2=120 m. Such a device displays a polarization extinction ratio, defined in this example as the (TM.fwdarw.TE transmission)/(TM.fwdarw.TM transmission) of greater than 13 dB. The device also has a conversion efficiency, defined as the TM.fwdarw.TE transmission of greater than 0.2 dB, where the variation in w.sub.tip is within the range 0.2 m-0.6 m.
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(24) Referring now to
(25) Next,
(26) Referring now to
(27) Next,
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(29) Generally, the above stabilizer may be referred to as a passive polarization stabilizer as is operable without any electronic control. The passive polarization stabilizer components may be monolithically integrated into a silicon photonic chip.
(30) Optionally, the stabilizer may also include an active polarization stabilization circuit 603. Broadly, this active polarization stabilization circuit operates through modifying the phase of light in one of two intermediate waveguides such that light from each is combined in a coupler whilst minimising losses.
(31) In more detail, a first heater 604a is provided in one of the two intermediate waveguides, and immediately before a first coupler 605. After the first coupler 605, a second heater 604b, is provide in a further intermediate waveguide which is connected to the second of the two coupler outputs of the first coupler. The second coupler has a preferred output connected to an output of the polarization stabilizer, and a second output. The heaters are operable to modify the phase of the light passing through the respective intermediate waveguides, such that light passing through the second coupler 606 preferentially exits though a first of two coupler outputs. The second output of the second coupler 606 is connected to a photodiode 607, which is operable to detect any light exiting the second coupler 606 through the second output. The photodiode, first heater, and second heater, are all connected to a controller 608. By using the detected light at the photodiode, the controller is operable to vary the degree of phase shift implemented by either or both of the heaters so as to minimise the amount of light exiting the second coupler via its second output. The photodiode may be a Germanium based photodiode, as it works in both the O- and C-band of wavelengths. The components other than the controller may, as with the passive components, be monolithically integrated into a silicon photonic chip. The controller may be implemented on a complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor chip, where the photodiode and heaters are wirebonded to the CMOS chip. The heaters may be formed of titanium, titanium nitride, or doped silicon.
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.sub.TE=(.sub.TE(w.sub.t1).sub.TE(w.sub.t2)).Math.L.sub.t=m.sub.1
.sub.TM=(.sub.TM(w.sub.t1).sub.TM(w.sub.t2)).Math.L.sub.t=m.sub.2
(33) Where .sub.TE and .sub.TM are the propagation constants of the TE and TM polarization states, respectively, m.sub.1 and m.sub.2 are integers, and m.sub.1+m.sub.2 is odd. For a 1 m-thick strip silicon waveguide, m.sub.1=3 and m.sub.2=2 is the solution with the smallest integers, which leads to the smallest value for L.sub.t which minimises the device footprint.
(34) In more detail, the polarization splitter 700 is formed of an input waveguide 701 which receives light with components in both TE and TM polarization states. The light passes through a first multimode interference coupler 702 (in this instance functioning as a splitter), and provide to first intermediate waveguide 703 and second intermediate waveguide 704. The first intermediate waveguide tapers from a first width w.sub.io to a second width w.sub.t1 and extends along a length L.sub.t with the width w.sub.t1. After this length, the width of the first intermediate waveguide then increases from w.sub.t1 back to w.sub.io before connecting to a second multimode interference coupler 705. In some examples, the second intermediate waveguide 704 has a width w.sub.io which remains constant, and the second intermediate waveguide couples an output of the splitter 702 to an input of the coupler 705. In other examples, the second intermediate waveguide has a first width w.sub.io which may taper to a second width w.sub.t2. A gap g between the first intermediate waveguide and the second intermediate waveguide may be around 1.5 m.
(35) By applying the conditions above, namely the phase differences provided by the equations above, the splitter 700 can be configured such that light entering the device is preferentially divided into TE and TM polarized components which are provided to distinct outputs 706 and 707 of the second multimode interference coupler 705. It should be noted that the first multimode interference coupler includes, in this example, a second input waveguide. However in general it is not used.
(36) In two example devices, the parameters above take the following values:
(37) TABLE-US-00001 Example m.sub.1 m.sub.2 g w.sub.t1 w.sub.t2 L.sub.t 1 6 7 1.5 m 1.32 m 3 m 139 m 2 6 7 1.5 m 1.39 m 2.5 m 180 m
(38) In some examples, the taper widths i.e. w.sub.t1 and w.sub.t2 lie in the range 1 m<w.sub.ti<4 m such that mode hybridization is avoided.
(39) An example of the polarization splitter 700 above was simulated with the following device parameters:
(40) TABLE-US-00002 Parameter Value (m) w.sub.io 3 g 1.5 L.sub.mmi 302 w.sub.t1 1.3 w.sub.t2 3 L.sub.t 121 Total device length 725
(41) The results of this simulation are shown in
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L.sub.MMI= 3/2.Math.L.sub.(TE).Math.n.sub.1= 3/2L.sub.(TM).Math.n.sub.2
(43) Where n.sub.1 and n.sub.2 are integers.
(44) The device as discussed above, and as shown in
(45) The polarization splitters shown in
(46) While the invention has been described in conjunction with the exemplary embodiments described above, many equivalent modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art when given this disclosure. Accordingly, the exemplary embodiments of the invention set forth above are considered to be illustrative and not limiting. Various changes to the described embodiments may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
LIST OF FEATURES
(47) 100 Polarization rotator 101 Input waveguide 102 Slab portion 103 Ridge portion 104 Guiding direction 105 Output waveguide 401a-c Optical signal 402 Polarization splitter 403 Input waveguide 404 Input waveguide 405 First intermediate waveguide 406 Second intermediate waveguide 407 Third intermediate waveguide 408 Fourth intermediate waveguide 501 Silicon substrate 502 Buried oxide 601 Input optical signal 602 Polarization splitter 603 Active stabilizer circuit 604a,b Heater 605, 606 MMI coupler 607 Photodiode 608 Control circuit 609 Output light 700 Polarization splitter 701 Input waveguide 702 MMI coupler 703 First intermediate waveguide 704 Second intermediate waveguide 705 MMI coupler 706 First output waveguide 707 Second output waveguide 800 Polarization splitter 801 Input waveguide 802 MMI coupler 803 First output waveguide 804 Second output waveguide 901 Input 902 First output 903 Second output 1001 Input 1002 First output 1003 Second output