Performance and design issues associated with the trend to micro and nanophotonics

摘要

There is a trend in photonic circuits to move to smaller device dimensions for improved cost efficiency and device performance. However, the trend also comes at some cost to performance, notably in the polarization dependence of the circuits, the difficulty in coupling to the circuits, and in some cases, in increased device complexity. This paper discusses a range of Silicon-on-Insulator (SOI) based optical devices, and the advantages and disadvantages in moving to smaller waveguide dimensions. In particular we consider optical phase modulators, optical ring resonators, and the fundamental optical waveguide itself. We also consider devices that have been proposed and implemented in SOI for coupling to these smaller devices.