Abstract

Regarding the importance of bandwidth and capacity expansion in communication systems, a novel mode division (de)multiplexer based on subwavelength grating (SWG) is proposed. SWG-based devices could have smaller sizes, be much more fabrication-tolerant, and have much wider bandwidths due to the reduced confinement of the field and dispersion. It is also feasible to reduce the loss of a SWG-based device by tuning the duty cycle of the grating. Owing to these properties of SWGs, we have designed a compact fabrication-tolerant two-mode division (de)multiplexer. A flat-top transmission of $>0.89$ (loss $<0.5\mathrm{dB}$) is obtained over 65 nm from 1500 to 1565 nm, completely covering the entire C-band used for dense wavelength division multiplexing. Moreover, the cross-talk is $<-10\mathrm{dB}$ for a broad bandwidth of $\sim 120\mathrm{nm}$ over which the loss of the complete device including both multiplexer and demultiplexer is $<1\mathrm{dB}$. Therefore, the proposed device is promising for high-capacity optical communications in both conventional and entirely SWG-based silicon photonic circuits.

© 2017 Optical Society of America

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