Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Si-Based ARROW-B Photonic Crystal Sharp-Bend Waveguides and Power Splitters

Abstract

Si-based type-B antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW-B) photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) with 60 degrees bend, 120 degrees bend, and Y-branch power splitter were first successfully fabricated and characterized. A simple capsule-shaped defect was designed to modulate the 60 degrees and 120 degrees photonic crystal (PC) bend corners and Y-branch PC power splitters. In the preliminary experiments, the average bend losses of 60 degrees and 120 degrees PC bend waveguides for both polarizations were lower than 1.5 and 4.2 dB/bend, respectively. For the Y-branch PC power splitters, power imbalances for both polarizations were all lower than 0.7 dB. It shows that the fabricated Si-based ARROW-B PCWs can provide good light sharp-bend ability and power-split ability.