Automated, deep reactive ion etching free fiber coupling to nanophotonic devices

Abstract

Rapid development in integrated optoelectronic devices and quantum photonic architectures creates a need for optical fiber to chip coupling with low losses. Here we present a fast and generic approach that allows temperature stable self-aligning connections of nanophotonic devices to optical fibers. We show that the attainable precision of our approach is equal to that of DRIE-process based couplings. Specifically, the initial alignment precision is 1.2±0.4 µm, the average shift caused by mating < 0.5 µm, which is in the order of the precision of the concentricity of the employed fiber, and the thermal cycling stability is < 0.2 µm. From these values the expected overall alignment offset is calculated as 1.4 ± 0.4 µm. These results show that our process offers an easy to implement, versatile, robust and DRIE-free method for coupling photonic devices to optical fibers. It can be fully automated and is therefore scalable for coupling to novel devices for quantum photonic systems.