This paper proposes a new design of two-mode three-port optical mode router for mode division multiplexing systems. The device consists of a Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) and a multimode interferometer (MMI), which utilizes silicon material for photonic integrated circuits (PIC). By setting appropriate values for the two butterfly-shaped phase shifters (PSs) at MZI and MMI, the input mode, either transverse electric (TE) modes TE0 or TE1, can be routed to the desired output among the three output ports. The device is designed and optimized via three-dimensional beam propagation method (3D BPM). The proposed device achieves very low insertion loss and small cross-talk, which are less than 0.4 dB and -24.5 dB, respectively, over the whole C band.
In this work, we propose a design in the proof-of-concept of a 1×3 two-mode selective silicon-photonics router/switch. The proposed device composes of a Y-junction coupler, two multimode interference (MMI) couplers, and two phase-shifters on the silicon-on-insulator (SOI) rib waveguides. The input modes of TE 0 and TE 1 can be arbitrarily and simultaneously routed to the yearning output ports by setting appropriate values (ON/OFF) for two tunable phase shifters (PSs). The structural optimization and efficient characterization processes are carried out by numerical simulation via three-dimensional beam propagation method. The proposed device exhibits the operation ability over the C-band with good optical performances in terms of insertion loss smaller than 1 dB, crosstalk under -19 dB, and relatively large geometry tolerances. Moreover, the proposed device can integrate into a footprint as compact as 5 µm × 475 µm. Such significant advantages are beneficial and promising potentials for very large-scale photonic integrated circuits, high-speed optical interconnects, and short-haul few-mode fiber communication systems.
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