Transmissive silicon photonic dichroic filters with spectrally selective waveguides

Abstract

Many optical systems require broadband filters with sharp roll-offs for efficiently splitting or combining light across wide spectra. While free space dichroic filters can provide broadband selectivity, on-chip integration of these high-performance filters is crucial for the scalability of photonic applications in multi-octave interferometry, spectroscopy, and wideband wavelength-division multiplexing. Here we present the theory, design, and experimental characterization of integrated, transmissive, 1 × 2 port dichroic filters using spectrally selective waveguides. Mode evolution through adiabatic transitions in the demonstrated filters allows for single cutoff and flat-top responses with low insertion losses and octave-wide simulated bandwidths. Filters with cutoffs around 1550 and 2100 nm are fabricated on a silicon-on-insulator platform with standard complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor processes. A filter roll-off of 2.82 dB nm−1 is achieved while maintaining ultra-broadband operation. This new class of nanophotonic dichroic filters can lead to new paradigms in on-chip communications, sensing, imaging, optical synthesis, and display applications.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Aug 01, 2018
Source ID
10.1038/s41467-018-05287-1

Entities

People

  • Alfonso Ruocco
  • Christopher V. Poulton
  • Diedrik Vermeulen
  • Emir Salih Mağden
  • Erich P. Ippen
  • Leslie A. Kolodziejski
  • Manan Raval
  • Michael. R. Watts
  • Nanxi Li
  • Neetesh Singh

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electronics Engineering
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics
  • Space