UV-written Integrated Optical 1xN Splitters

Abstract

Abstract:The first demonstration of UV-written, silica-on-silicon integrated optical 1×N power splitters with up to 32 outputs ports is presented. The fabricated components exhibit 450 nm bandwidth, low excess loss and good channel uniformity.

Coupling ratio tuning of direct UV-written X-couplers for cascaded power splitters in WDM networks

“…Having demonstrated small angle (0.8º-4º) X-couplers with relatively low polarisation and wavelength sensitivity [2], this paper investigates the effect of asymmetry between the two UV written X-coupler arms in tuning coupling performance. Similar work has previously been investigated by Svalgaard for producing 50:50 y-branches in 1xN splitters [3], mode evolution 3-dB couplers [4], and beam combiners [5].…”

Direct UV-Written Integrated Optical Beam Combiner for Stellar Interferometry

“…1), based on a layout similar to that currently used for scientific measurements in astronomical facilities [3], [13]. Beam interference (port D and E) is achieved with an asymmetrical 3-dB directional coupler [9] that features broadband performance, while the photometric outputs (port C and F) are realized using 3-dB Y-branch power splitters [7]. The performance of these subcomponents is controlled by tailoring the applied scan velocity during UV writing.…”

“…The technology was originally developed for low-cost telecom applications such as variable optical attenuators [6]. Recently, UV writing has been employed for fabrication of devices with increased complexity, such as multichannel optical power splitters [7], [8] and broadband directional couplers [9].…”

Fabrication of 2 /spl times/ 8 power splitters in silica-on-silicon by the direct UV writing technique

“…This phenomenon is seen in many of the fabricated devices and it does not occur for the same input-output channel each time. The effect only becomes apparent when the guided mode amplitude is low, such as when the input signal is distributed among several output channels [9]. It is speculated that weakly guided vertical modes copropagate in the core layer because the latter may have an index slightly higher than the buffer-cladding, and upon recoupling to the channel waveguide this may lead to the observed behavior [10].…”