Modelling, design and optimization of compact taper and gratings for mode coupling to SOI waveguides at C-band

Abstract

In this work, the design and optimization of compact taper is presented to enable coupling of infrared light in the C-band with the nano-photonic silicon-on-insulator (SOI) integrated optical waveguide. The proposed compact taper results in ∼96% transmission efficiency for the taper length of ∼5 µm and ∼99.5% transmission efficiency for the taper length of 10 µm. The use of the proposed compact taper significantly reduces the foot print of optical coupler (grating and proposed compact taper) to (10 × 5) µm² with ∼96% transmittance and (10 × 10) µm² with ∼99.5% transmittance. The end-to-end coupling loss is less than 0.01 dB in the C-band. The compact taper along with grating presented in this work can be used as an efficient optical coupler for mode coupling from fibre to SOI single-mode optical waveguide in high density optical integrated circuits operating at 1550 nm.

KEYWORDS:

• Compact taper
• gratings
• couplers
• transmittance
• coupling loss
• C-band

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Vision Group on Science and Technology, Department of IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka, India, Grant number: VGST/CISEE/GRD–466/2015-16, for funding to carry out this research work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank Vision Group on Science and Technology, Department of IT, BT & ST, Government of Karnataka, India [grant number:VGST/CISEE/GRD–466/2015-16] for funding to carry out this research work.