Multimode interference couplers were fabricated from tantalum pentoxide thin film grown with electron beam evaporation routes. The large Kerr nonlinearity enabled experimental demonstration of a low-power optically controlled Yjunction device based on a nonlinear MMI coupler that was 8 μm wide, 100 nm thick, and 4.3 mm long. The nonlinear switching experiments were comparable to numerical simulations based on the temporal evolution with nonlinear coupled mode equations including self-phase modulation, cross-phase modulation, fourwave mixing, and dispersions. The demonstration suggests a promising platform for nonlinear integrated photonic functional devices such as saturation absorbers and optical power limiters in addition to the demonstrated all-optical switches.
Multimode interference (MMI) couplers were fabricated by Tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5) thin film grown with e-beam evaporation routes. All optical switching based on nonlinear MMI was experimentally demonstrated under ps laser pulse at sub-nJ energy level.
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