Integrated Optics: Platforms and Fabrication Methods

Fabrication of Freeform Optics

Freeform surfaces on optical components have become an important design tool for optical designers. Non-rotationally symmetric optical surfaces have made solving complex optical problems easier. The manufacturing and testing of these surfaces has been the technical hurdle in freeform optic’s wide-spread use. Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) optics manufacturing technology has made the fabr...

Integrated circuits and fabrication

High-Density Integrated Optics

This paper presents two-dimensional (2-D) finite difference time domain (FDTD) simulations of low-loss rightangle waveguide bends, T-junctions and crossings, based on high index-contrast waveguides. Such structures are essential for the dense integration of optical components. Excellent performance characteristics are obtained by designing the waveguide intersection regions as low-Q resonant ca...

Fabrication of three-dimensional mode converters for silicon-based integrated optics

One of the key challenges facing silicon-based integrated optics is the coupling of light from standard optical fibers to submicron silicon waveguides. As a solution to this problem, we present an adiabatically tapered three-dimensional mode converter based on graytone optical lithography and silicon-on-insulator substrates. Our goal has been to preserve complementary metal–oxide– semiconductor...

Chirped Gratings in Integrated Optics

Gratings with variable periods (chirped gratings) have been fabricated by recording the interference pattern of a collimated laser beam with a converging beam generated by a cylindrical lens. An analysis is presented for the behavior of the chirped gratings as a function of wavelength, the angle between the illuminating beams, the F number of the lens, and its position. To calculate the power r...