Open AccessFour-Port Nanophotonic Frustrated Total Internal Reflection Coupler
Author(s) -
Duncan L. MacFarlane,
Marc P. Christensen,
Ke Liu,
Tim P. LaFave,
Gary A. Evans,
Nahid Sultana,
T. W. Kim,
Jiyoung Kim,
Jay B. Kirk,
Nathan Huntoon,
Andrew J. Stark,
Mieczyslaw Dabkowski,
Louis R. Hunt,
Viswanath Ramakrishna
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
ieee photonics technology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.81
H-Index - 157
eISSN - 1941-0174
pISSN - 1041-1135
DOI - 10.1109/lpt.2011.2172204
Subject(s) - engineered materials, dielectrics and plasmas , photonics and electrooptics
Four-port frustrated total internal reflection couplers in InP-based GalnAsP quantum-well substrates are realized and characterized. Each coupler forms an "X" at the perpendicular intersection of two ridge waveguides and is aligned 45° to the optical path. The 180-nm-wide couplers are fabricated by dry etching deep trenches through the quantum wells and backfilling with alumina (n = 1.71) by atomic layer deposition. Coupling coefficients for the fabricated coupler are in good agreement with a three-dimensional finite-difference time-domain theory, and an 82% coupler efficiency is estimated.