Optimization of a thermally tuned silicon-based reconfigurable optical power splitter with thermal isolations

Ximeng Han; Yonglin Yu

doi:10.1117/1.OE.56.1.017106

24 January 2017 Optimization of a thermally tuned silicon-based reconfigurable optical power splitter with thermal isolations

Ximeng Han, Yonglin Yu

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Optical Engineering, Vol. 56, Issue 1, 017106 (January 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.1.017106

Abstract

In this paper, a thermally tuned silicon-based three-channel reconfigurable multimode interference (MMI) optical power splitter with four optimized thermal isolations is proposed. Specific and flexible reconfigurable functions ( 1 × 1 , 1 × 2 , and 1 × 3 MMI splitters) can be achieved by thermally tuning the heaters. By using a beam propagation method, the optimum geometry of the heaters, desired refractive index changes, and phase shifts of the MMI splitter are calculated at first. The temperature distributions of the devices without and with the thermal isolations are then analyzed by using the finite element method. Thermal crosstalk between adjacent heaters is observed and the influence of the thermal isolation geometry on the thermal crosstalk is examined subsequently. The geometry of the thermal isolations is optimized based on the trade-off between the thermal tuning efficiency and optical output characteristics. Finally, satisfactory improvements with the proposed structure are demonstrated with high-thermal efficiency (the maximum power dissipation decreases reach 43.7% and 55.2% for 1 × 1 and 1 × 2 MMI splitters, respectively) and good optical output quality (the maximum excess losses are as low as 0.365, 0.388, and 0.272 dB for 1 × 1 , 1 × 2 , and 1 × 3 MMI splitters, respectively; the crosstalk is less than − 21.27 and − 15.54 dB for 1 × 1 and

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Ximeng Han and Yonglin Yu "Optimization of a thermally tuned silicon-based reconfigurable optical power splitter with thermal isolations," Optical Engineering 56(1), 017106 (24 January 2017). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.OE.56.1.017106

Received: 25 September 2016; Accepted: 21 December 2016; Published: 24 January 2017

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