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Miniature Otto Prism Coupler for Integrated Photonics

One of the main issues in integrated photonics is the coupling of free‐space or optical fiber radiation to waveguides on the photonic chip surface. The ideal coupler is miniature, highly efficient, and provides a large number of addressable devices. Here, a new concept of 3D out‐of‐plane coupler is...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Laser & photonics reviews 2022-04, Vol.16 (4), p.n/a
Main Authors: Safronov, Kirill R., Bessonov, Vladimir O., Akhremenkov, Daniil V., Sirotin, Maxim A., Romodina, Maria N., Lyubin, Evgeny V., Soboleva, Irina V., Fedyanin, Andrey A.
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Language:English
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Summary:One of the main issues in integrated photonics is the coupling of free‐space or optical fiber radiation to waveguides on the photonic chip surface. The ideal coupler is miniature, highly efficient, and provides a large number of addressable devices. Here, a new concept of 3D out‐of‐plane coupler is introduced, which is a microscale prism exploiting frustrated total internal reflection in the Otto configuration to excite surface electromagnetic waves or near‐surface waveguide modes. A method for designing the couplers operating at normal incidence is proposed and it is applied to excite Bloch surface waves (BSWs) in 1D photonic crystals. Polymer microprisms are printed using two‐photon laser lithography and allow transferring more than 40% of the incident light energy into BSWs. The couplers enable focusing BSWs simultaneously with their excitation. Advanced design prisms can provide nearly 100% efficiency, making the proposed concept an alternative to actual coupling concepts in integrated photonics. A new concept of integrated 3D out‐of‐plane coupler is proposed, which is a microscale prism exploiting the Otto configuration. Proof‐of‐concept couplers are printed on top of photonic crystals using two‐photon laser lithography and demonstrate unidirectional Bloch surface waves excitation with more than 40% coupling efficiency. Advanced microprisms can provide nearly 100% efficiency as well as manipulation of waveguide mode parameters.
ISSN:1863-8880
1863-8899
DOI:10.1002/lpor.202100542