Efficient light transfer in coupled nonlinear triple waveguides using shortcuts to adiabaticity

Abstract

We use the method of shortcuts to adiabaticity to design the variable couplings in a three-waveguide directional coupler which may contain nonlinear elements, in order to accomplish efficient light transfer between the outer waveguides for shorter device lengths, despite the presence of nonlinearity. The shortcut couplings are obtained for the ideal case where all the waveguides are linear, for which a perfect transfer is guaranteed in theory, but are tested for various combinations of linear and nonlinear waveguides in the device. We show with numerical simulations that, in most configurations, high levels of transfer efficiency can be maintained even for large values of the input power, and for shorter lengths than those of conventional adiabatic devices. We also find that efficiency is improved for shortcut couplings with less spatial extent, since in this case the nonlinearity acts during a shorter range. The present work is expected to find application in research fields like optoelectronic computing and ultrafast light switching, where the fast and controlled light transmission inside a set of waveguides is a crucial task. Additionally, the reduction in the device size may be exploited for incorporating them in integrated optical systems, where a high density of waveguides is required.

Adiabaticity Engineered Silicon Polarization Independent 3-dB Coupler for the O-Band

“…Thanks to this analogy, the techniques in quantum mechanics can be applied in optical waveguide couplers. A family of protocols called shortcuts to adiabaticity (STA) has also found analogies in coupled waveguide devices, resulting in short and robust integrated optics components [12], [13]. Short and broadband 3-dB couplers have been designed and experimentally demonstrated using a STA called fast quasi-adiabatic dynamics (FAQUAD) [14].…”