Compact, low-cost photonic integrated circuits (PICs) have long been a desire of systems engineers. Unfortunately, the majority of PICs in use today use regrown buried heterostructure waveguides to achieve low crosstalk at reasonable packing density. These regrown structures are very expensive and limit PIC applications to high performance niches. The alternative low- cost approach is to use etched-rib, or strip-loaded, waveguides. Strip-loaded waveguides are simple to manufacture but may have guided slab-modes carrying unwanted light between devices within the PIC. These slab modes can result in very high crosstalk or low device density. This paper addresses techniques for control of stray light in strip-loaded PICs. Methods include mesa isolation of waveguides and ion implantation outside the waveguide rib. In addition, some devices such as Mach-Zehnder interferometers and waveguide power combiners generate radiation and slab modes as a fundamental means of operation. Improved designs for both of these structures with proper removal of both radiated and slab-mode light and high contrast-ration operation will be covered.

Date Published: 30 June 1994
PDF: 7 pages
Proc. SPIE 2146, Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices II, (30 June 1994); doi: 10.1117/12.178495

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 2146:
Physics and Simulation of Optoelectronic Devices II
Weng W. Chow; Marek Osinski, Editor(s)