Interlayer directional coupling in antiresonant reflecting optical waveguides

摘要

A grating in the upper reflecting layer (103 or 203) of an antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide is used to extract energy of a selected wavelength from the waveguiding layer (102 or 202) into the reflecting layer. In one embodiment the reflecting layer (103) is designed as a gain medium which is pumped in the region of a grating (120) and optically terminated at each end of the device such that the embodiment serves as a laser having a long cavity provided by the waveguiding layer (102) with the gain provided in the short grating region. In a second embodiment the reflecting layer (203) in the region of a grating (211) has an opposite conductivity dopant from that of the waveguiding layer (202) such that the device in this region may be backbiased to serve as a wavelength selective photodetector. By placing two wavelength photodetectors in tandem with gratings (211 and 212) of different pitches a wavelength demultiplexing photodetector is provided.