Open AccessIntegrated photonic tunable basic units using dual-drive directional couplers
Author(s) -
Daniel Pérez,
Ana María Vega Gutiérrez,
Erica Sánchez,
P. DasMahapatra,
J. Capmany
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.27.038071
Subject(s) - photonic integrated circuit , astronomical interferometer , waveguide , power dividers and directional couplers , beam splitter , photonics , optics , optical switch , footprint , beam propagation method , integrated circuit , interference (communication) , polygon mesh , interferometry , scalability , optoelectronics , computer science , materials science , physics , telecommunications , refractive index , paleontology , laser , channel (broadcasting) , computer graphics (images) , database , biology
Photonic integrated circuits based on waveguide meshes and multibeam interferometers call for large-scale integration of Tunable Basic Units (TBUs) that feature beam splitters and waveguides. This units are loaded with phase actuators to provide complex linear processing functionalities based on optical interference and can be reconfigured dynamically. Here, we propose and experimentally demonstrate, to the best of our knowledge, for the first time, a thermally actuated Dual-Drive Directional Coupler (DD-DC) design integrated on a silicon nitride platform. It operates both as a standalone optical component providing arbitrary optical beam splitting and common phase as well as a low loss and potentially low footprint TBU. Finally, we report the experimental demonstration of the first integrated triangular waveguide mesh arrangement using DD-DC based TBUs and provide an extended analysis of its performance and scalability.