Asymmetric directional couplers based on silicon nanophotonic waveguides and applications

• Published in: Frontiers of Optoelectronics (Online) Vol. 9; no. 3; pp. 450 - 465
• Main Authors: DAI, Daoxin, WANG, Shipeng
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Beijing Higher Education Press 01.09.2016; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: ADCs; asymmetric directional couplers (ADCs); Asymmetry; Beam splitters; Biomedical Engineering and Bioengineering; Coupling; Directional couplers; Electrical Engineering; Engineering; mode-division multiplexing (MDM); Multiplexing; Physics; Polarization; polarization beam splitter (PBSs); polarization-division multiplexing (PDM); Review Article; Silicon; silicon photonics; Splitting; Waveguides; 光子; 复用系统; 定向耦合器; 应用; 硅波导; 纳米; 非对称; polarization-division multiplexing (PDM); asymmetric directional couplers (ADCs); polarization beam splitter (PBSs); silicon photonics; mode-division multiplexing (MDM)
• ISSN: 2095-2759; 2095-2767
• DOI: 10.1007/s12200-016-0557-8

Directional couplers （DCs） have been playing an important role as a basic element for realizing power exchange. Previously most work was focused on symmetric DCs and little work was reported for asymmetric directional couplers （ADCs）. In recently years, silicon nanophotonie waveguides with ultra-high index contrast and ultra-small cross section have been developed very well and it has been shown that ADCs based on silicon-oninsulator （SOI） nanophotonic waveguides have some unique ability for polarization-selective coupling as well as mode-selective coupling, which are respectively very important for polarization-related systems and mode-division-mulitplexing systems. In this paper, a review is given for the recent progresses on silicon-based ADCs and the applications for power splitting, polarization beam splitting, as well as mode conversion/（de）multiplexing.