A Taper to Reduce the Straight-to-Bend Transition Loss in Compact Silicon Waveguides
Date of this Version
8-2010Citation
IEEE Photonics Technology Letters ( Volume: 22, Issue: 15, Aug.1, 2010 )
This document has been peer-reviewed.
Abstract
Strong confinement of light in silicon waveguides allows for sharp bends and, as a result, high-density integration. However, the mode transition loss between the straight and bent portions of a silicon waveguide begins to affect the device performance when the bending radius becomes small. In this letter, we show that a transition region with a step taper between the straight and bent portions of the waveguide can effectively reduce this transition loss. This is demonstrated by measuring the intrinsic round-trip losses of micro-racetrack resonators, where ultralow loss can be precisely characterized according to the quality (Q)-factor change. The results show that the taper can suppress the transition loss from 0.016 to 0.0022 dB for a 4.5-mu m bend radius. Consequently, we improve the Q-factor of such a racetrack resonator from 31 000 to 87 000.
Discipline(s)
Engineering | Nanoscience and Nanotechnology
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