Reflectionless grating coupling for silicon-on-insulator integrated circuits

We propose a novel grating coupler design which is inherently reflectionless by focusing the reflected light away from the entrance waveguide. The grating coupler design is investigated by means of 3D FDTD simulations

Compact focusing grating couplers for silicon-on-insulator integrated circuits

Abstract—We report experimental results on compact and broadband focusing grating couplers, both in silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and gold on SOI. An eight-fold length reduction of the coupling structure from fiber to photonic wire in SOI, as com-pared to a linear grating and adiabatic taper, is obtained, without performance penalty. A proof of principle is given for a focusing grating coupler in gold on SOI, with 20 % fiber-to-focus efficiency. Index Terms—Focusing grating coupler, gold, integrated optics, metal, nanophotonic waveguides, silicon-on-insulator (SOI). I

Input-output relations for a 3-port grating coupled Fabry-Perot cavity

We analyze an optical 3-port reflection grating by means of a scattering matrix formalism. Amplitude and phase relations between the 3 ports, i.e. the 3 orders of diffraction are derived. Such a grating can be used as an all-reflective, low-loss coupler to Fabry-Perot cavities. We derive the input output relations of a 3-port grating coupled cavity and find distinct properties not present in 2-port coupled cavities. The cavity relations further reveal that the 3-port coupler can be designed such that the additional cavity port interferes destructively. In this case the all-reflective, low-loss, single-ended Fabry-Perot cavity becomes equivalent to a standard transmissive, 2-port coupled cavity

Efficient, broadband and compact metal grating couplers for silicon-on-insulator waveguides

Metal grating couplers for Silicon-on-Insulator waveguides are proposed. A silver grating coupler with 33% coupling efficiency is designed. A gold gating coupler prototype is fabricated using Focused Ion Beams demonstrating over 10% coupling efficiency. (C) 2007 Optical Society of Americ

Cancellation of lateral displacement noise of 3-port gratings for coupling light to cavities

Reflection gratings enable light coupling to optical cavities without transmission through substrates. Gratings that have three ports and are mounted in second-order Littrow configuration even allow the coupling to high-finesse cavities using low diffraction efficiencies. In contrast to conventional transmissive cavity couplers, however, the phase of the diffracted light depends on the lateral position of the grating, which introduces an additional noise coupling. Here we experimentally demonstrate that this kind of noise cancels out once both diffracted output ports of the grating are combined. We achieve the same signal-to-shot-noise ratio as for a conventional coupler. From this perspective, 3-port grating couplers in second-order Littrow configuration remain a valuable approach to reducing optical absorption of cavity coupler substrates in future gravitational wave detectors

An elastomeric grating coupler

We report on a novel nondestructive and reversible method for coupling free space light to planar optical waveguides. In this method, an elastomeric grating is used to produce an effective refractive index modulation on the surface of the optical waveguide. The external elastomeric grating binds to the surface of the waveguide with van der Waals forces and makes conformal contact without any applied pressure. As a demonstration of the feasibility of the approach, we use it to measure the refractive index of a silicon oxynitride film. This technique is nondestructive, reversible, low cost and can easily be applied to the characterization of optical materials for integrated optics

Effects of beam focusing on the efficiency of planar waveguide grating couplers

Results of a theoretical and experimental study into the variation of coupling efficiency with a grating angle are presented for various beam focusing conditions for an integrated optical grating coupler. The study shows that the acceptance angle of the grating coupler can be broadened within a relatively large range and with a relatively small loss of coupling efficiency, by focusing the incident laser beam

Ultra-compact silicon nitride grating coupler for microscopy systems

Grating couplers have been widely used for coupling light between photonic chips and optical fibers. For various quantum-optics and bio-optics experiments, on the other hand, there is a need to achieve good light coupling between photonic chips and microscopy systems. Here, we propose an ultra-compact silicon nitride (SiN) grating coupler optimized for coupling light from a waveguide to a microscopy system. The grating coupler is about 4 by 2 mu m(2) in size and a 116 nm 1 dB bandwidth can be achieved theoretically. An optimized fabrication process was developed to realize suspended SiN waveguides integrated with these couplers on top of a highly reflective bottom mirror. Experimental results show that up to 53% (2.76 dB loss) of the power of the TE mode can be coupled from a suspended SiN waveguide to a microscopy system with a numerical aperture (NA) = 0.65. Simulations show this efficiency can increase up to 75% (1.25 dB loss) for NA = 0.95

Electro-optic scanning of light coupled from a corrugated LiNbO3 waveguide

Light diffracted from a grating output coupler in a Ti-diffused LiNbO3 waveguide is scanned electro-optically. Using a coupling length of 2.5 mm in our arrangement we have demonstrated a scanning capability of one resolved spot per 3 V/µm applied field