Finite element modeling of coupling characteristics of directional coupler for multiplexer and de-multiplexer application

Abstract

Numerical simulation of directional coupler that is based on the finite element method was conducted using the COMSOL Multiphysics software. The distributions of electric field and power flow of light propagates in two cores of directional coupler were analyzed. The results showed the dependencies of coupling length and maximum transfer power between cores on the cores separation and the wavelength, the characteristic of a subwavelength directional coupler can be used for photonic integrated circuits. Asymmetric directional coupler was also designed by changing in the device dimension, as the core width. The variation of coupling length with the core width were analysed. It was found that the power switching between cores is reduced when introducing a small difference in the one core width of directional coupler, followed by increased coupling length. At the same time, the coupling length can be decreased efficiently by increasing the difference in one core width; therefore, a directional coupler with large core width is more convenient to reduce the power switching between cores than the smaller core width. This study is useful for determining the coupling characteristics between the cores that may be used as a platform for future photonic integrated circuits in optical communication systems.