Methods and applications of on-chip beam splitting: A review

Abstract

The construction of large-scale integrated photonic circuit cannot be separated from the important role played by silicon-based optoelectronic devices. As a basic and important link in on-chip photon propagation, beam splitting is of great significance for the efficient utilization of sources and the compact integration of optoelectronic devices. It is widely used in power splitting, polarization separation, wavelength division multiplexing and other scenarios. This paper reviews the on-chip beam splitting methods in recent years, which are mainly divided into the following categories: y-branch, multimode interference coupling, directional coupling, and inverse design. This paper introduces their research status, including optimization design methods, functions and applications in large-scale quantum chips and optoelectronic hybrid integration, looking forward to providing a reference for the further research of beam splitting methods and the wide application of beam splitters in the frontier field in the future.

Editorial: Editor’s challenge in optics and photonics: Advancing electronics with photonics

“…First, Xu et al presented a review of the methods and applications of on-chip beam splitting [10]. These are fundamental components for any photonic integrated circuits since they allow the routing of the photons along different paths.…”

Inverse design and characterization of compact, broadband, and low-loss chip-scale photonic power splitters

“…Silicon is gaining attention for quantum technologies not only for the aforementioned reasons but also due to the ability to integrate emitters with excellent quantum optical and spin properties [36,37]. The 50:50 power splitters mainly fall into two categories: as specialized instances of generic 2 × 2 couplers, such as directional couplers, or as fixed power-splitting devices with a 1 × 2 configuration [38]. Directional couplers are the chip-scale equivalent of a conventional optical beam splitter, and they operate by evanescent coupling of the modes of two adjacent waveguides separated by a small gap, with the power distribution along them and the final power-splitting ratio determined by the width of that gap, the optical interaction length, and the wavelength.…”

Designing an Optical Router Based on a Multimode-Interference Silicon-On-Insulator Coupler with Tunable Power Transmittance

“…The main applications of optical routing are manifested in the wavelength-division multiplexing and demultiplexing in optical networks. The growing demand for ultrafast optical communication devices backed by the increased requirements for higher internet bandwidths is creating the need for faster and lower-power-consumption routing mechanisms [1]. Thereby, extensive research to develop high-performance optical switching and routing is of increasing interest.…”