Integration of periodic, sub‐wavelength structures in silicon‐on‐insulator photonic device design

Abstract

Rapid advances in high‐resolution chip lithography have accelerated nanophotonic device development on the silicon‐on‐insulator (SOI) platform. The ability to create sub‐wavelength features in silicon has attracted research in photonic band and dispersion engineering and consequently made available a wide array of device functionalities. By drawing on recent demonstrations, the authors review how periodic, sub‐wavelength structures are used for passive wave manipulation in SOI device design. The optical response is evaluated for both orthogonal polarisations at the telecom wavelengths of 1310 and 1550 nm. The results offer a versatile toolkit for the integration of these features in conventional nanophotonic device geometries. Notable benefits include a fine control of dispersion, wavelength and polarisation selectivity, and broadband performance.

A 2 μm Wavelength Band Low-Loss Spot Size Converter Based on Trident Structure on the SOI Platform

“…Furthermore, integration of those single devices on the same platform is attractive due to the motivation of realizing a compact module/system for commercialization. Meanwhile, a silicon on insulator (SOI) platform with high integration, low loss and compatibility with the CMOS process has been widely used in photonic integrated circuits [14][15][16][17][18].…”

Inverse Design and Numerical Investigations of an Ultra-Compact Integrated Optical Switch Based on Phase Change Material

“…In this paper, to effectively integrate PCMs with integrated optical switch waveguides and improve device performance, a novel ultra-compact integrated optical switch based on PCM is proposed, which is designed with one GST nano-disk and a inverse-designed pixilated sub-wavelength structure. On the one hand, the pixelated sub-wavelength structure is an engineered artificial structure with controllable electromagnetic properties that are unattainable in conventional materials or structures [ 22 , 23 , 24 ]. This structure scatters and absorbs incident light with a customizable refractive index, leading to a significant decrease in the overall IL and an improvement in the ER of the device.…”