Hollow Waveguide Tapers
Hollow Waveguide Tapers
Hollow Waveguide Tapers
hollow
waveguide,
Optical
MEMS,
loss
I. INTRODUCTION
4 h2
w ( h + )
(1)
4 n s 2 ng 2 h 2
w ( ns 2 h + ng 2 )
(2)
2 = ko 2 ng 2 h 2 = ko 2 ns 2 2
(3)
(4)
(z) =
1 dP
P dz
(5)
hand side is just (1) but with h which is the case of small
losses [1]. Rearranging this equation and putting
dz dw = f ( w) we can integrate (6) from the initial width wo
to an arbitrary width w to find the waveguide power at an
arbitrary width as
w 4h '2 f ( w ')
P = Po exp
dw ' = Po exp ( ( w) )
(7)
w w' ' '
w2 B wo 2 + C
ln 2
2
w + C wo B
wo
(11)
wf
L
This integral can be solved analytically under certain
approximations for linear and parabolic tapers. The detailed
calculations can be found in the next section.
and C =
2
2
ko ns ng
B. Analytical Results
1
where B =
2 ko ng
1
k o ng
w
k
2
o ng
2
= k o 2 ng 2
(8)
w = wo + ( w f wo )
z
L
and
= ko 2 (ns 2 ng 2 ) +
w
ko ns 2 ng 2 +
1
2ko ns 2 ng 2
f ( w) =
w
2 L( w wo )
( w f wo )2
(9)
wo
( w) =
wf
ng ns 2 ng 2
1 2
1
wo ( w '2
(
) )( w '2 + (
)2 )
2 k o ng
2 ko ns 2 ng 2
(10)
L
z
f ( w) = 1 dw dz = L ( w f wo )
( w) =
2L
2 ( B + C ) ( w f wo )ng ns 2 ng 2
( w) =
[
2L
2
2
( w f wo ) ng ns 2 ng 2
C1 w2 B wo 2 + C C2 1 w
1 wo
ln (
)(
) +
tan
tan
2 w2 + C wo 2 B
C
C
w + B wo B
ln (
)(
) ]
2 B w B wo + B
C3
where C1 = wo
(B + C) ,
(12)
C2 = C / ( B + C ) and
C3 = B ( B + C ) .
C. BPM Assessment
In this section we compare BPM simulation results to the
analytical formulas (11) and (12). The hollow waveguide is
assumed to have a core refractive index of unity (air) and a
cladding refractive index of 3.5 (Silicon). The operating
wavelength is 1.55m. The waveguide tapers from a width of
10m to a width of 80m. At the end of the taper section, we
place a straight hollow waveguide having a width of 80m in
order to calculate the overlap between the propagated field in
the taper section and the fundamental mode of the hollow
waveguide having the final width. Typical structures for linear
and parabolic tapers are shown in figures 3a and 3b, along
with the field propagation inside the guide. A Pade (4,4)
scheme is employed in the BPM calculations to ensure
accurate results.
The waveguide is excited with the local normal mode of the
taper section at its input, assumed to be the same as that of the
axial field a closed waveguide with the same dimensions. The
justification for this can be found in [4], where the lower order
modes of multimode optical waveguides of arbitrary cross
sections are found to be equivalent to those of the longitudinal
fields in a closed waveguide. Since hollow waveguides can be
treated like normally guiding dielectric waveguides except for
a complex propagation constant we may treat their field
distributions similarly. The power inside the taper section is
monitored along with distance and compared to equations (11)
and (12) for different taper lengths ranging from 1000m to
4000m. Results for the linear and parabolic tapers are shown
in figure 4. In tables I and II we compare the total loss in dB
from simulation for the different taper kinds and lengths and
refractive index contrast, taking into consideration the
propagation loss and also the loss due to the inexact overlap
between the field distribution at the end of the hollow taper
and the fundamental mode of the output waveguide.
As a confirmation that the approximations made are
accurate, a numerical integration is carried out to calculate the
exact dependence of power on distance. The loss coefficient is
used as it appears in equation (1). We plot the results for both
tapers in figures 5 and 6 in the worst case which corresponds
to the fastest variation (i.e. for a taper length 1000m). We
can see that our approximation underestimates the losses in
the case of the linear taper structure while it overestimates it in
the parabolic structure. However in the two cases, the
differences are not quite significant.
We also compare the transmission from the end of the taper
for different taper angles. This is shown for the linear taper in
figure 7 and for the parabolic taper in figure 8. The taper angle
is calculated from
w f wo
2L
= tan 1
(13)
Fig. 5. Exact, approximate and simulation results compared for linear taper
length 1000m.
TABLE II
TAPER COMPARISON FOR DIFFERENT LENGTHS, SILICON DIOXIDE SUBSTRATE
Taper
Length
(m)
1000
2000
3000
4000
P
(dB)
0.64
1.29
1.95
2.61
Linear
O
(dB)
1.32
1.49
2.05
2.67
Parabolic
T
(dB)
1.96
2.78
4
5.28
P
(dB)
O
(dB)
T
(dB)
0.46
0.56
0.683
0.828
1.85
1.38
1.03
0.90
2.31
1.94
1.713
1.728
III. DISCUSSION
Fig. 7. Transmission from the linear taper section for air core and both silicon
and silicon dioxide substrates.
Fig. 8. Transmission from the parabolic taper section for air core and both
silicon and silicon dioxide substrates.
IV. CONCLUSION
TABLE I
TAPER COMPARISON FOR DIFFERENT LENGTHS , SILICON SUBSTRATE
Taper
Linear
Length
P
O
(m)
(dB)
(dB)
1000
0.2
1
2000
0.41
0.67
3000
0.62
0.75
4000
0.83
0.90
P=propagation loss
O=overlap loss
T=total loss
Parabolic
T
(dB)
1.2
1.08
1.37
1.73
P
(dB)
O
(dB)
T
(dB)
0.15
0.19
0.24
0.286
2
1.33
0.62
0.416
2.15
1.14
0.86
0.70
REFERENCES
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]