Inverse design of near unity efficiency perfectly vertical grating couplers

Optics Express
Andrew Michaels, Eli Yablonovitch

Abstract

Efficient coupling between integrated optical waveguides and optical fibers is essential to the success of silicon photonics. While many solutions exist, perfectly vertical grating couplers that scatter light out of a waveguide in the direction normal to the waveguide's top surface are an ideal candidate due to their potential to reduce packaging complexity. Designing such couplers with high efficiencies, however, has proven difficult. In this paper, we use inverse electromagnetic design techniques to optimize a high efficiency two-layer perfectly vertical silicon grating coupler. Our base design achieves a chip-to-fiber coupling efficiency of 99.2% (-0.035 dB) at 1550 nm. Using this base design as a starting point, we run subsequent constrained optimizations to realize vertical couplers with coupling efficiencies over 96% and back reflections of less than -40 dB which can be fabricated using 65 nm-resolution lithography. These results demonstrate a new path forward for designing fabrication-tolerant ultra high efficiency grating couplers.

References

Dec 21, 2004·Optics Letters·Dirk TaillaertRoel Baets
Feb 12, 2008·Applied Optics·R WaldhäuslW Karthe
Oct 10, 2013·Optics Express·Christopher M Lalau-KeralyEli Yablonovitch
Jul 21, 2015·Optics Express·Angelo BozzolaLucio Claudio Andreani
May 13, 2017·Scientific Reports·Alexander Y PiggottJelena Vučković

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Citations

Oct 17, 2018·Light, Science & Applications·Sangsik KimVladimir A Aksyuk
Jun 30, 2019·Optics Express·Anat Demeter-Finzi, Shlomo Ruschin
Dec 13, 2019·Scientific Reports·Siddharth NambiarShankar Kumar Selvaraja
Nov 25, 2018·Optics Express·Jason C C MakJoyce K S Poon
Nov 7, 2019·Optics Express·Timothy P McKennaAmir H Safavi-Naeini
Jul 25, 2019·Nature Communications·Yingjie LiuQinghai Song

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