Abstract
Optical information systems are much more superior to electronic systems
and integrated photonics is a dominant trend for photonic devices in the
future. In order to realize large-scale integration, silicon photonics is
developed. However, the high refractive index contrast of silicon-on
insulator (SOI) nanophotonic waveguides also results in a large mismatch
between a single-mode fiber mode and a SOI waveguide fundamental mode. A
grating coupler approach is thought to be an effective solution to the
problem. Mid-IR plays an important role in optical sensing. In this paper,
we discuss the mid-IR(4μm~5μm) grating coupler for SOI waveguides with
a high coupling efficiency and a large bandwidth.
The increase of the coupling efficiency could be carried out by two aspects.
One is to increase the optical power radiated and the directionality of
it, and another is to improve the matching between the fiber mode and the
waveguide mode. The initial structure derived from theoretical analysis
then could be optimized by the two aspects and be computed by the eigenmode
expansion technique. At last, the designed grating coupler with a bottom
reflector shows a coupling efficiency of 80% and a 3dB bandwidth of 370nm.
On the basis of this structure, we propose a nonuniform grating coupler
based on the lag effect for designing.