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Inverse-designed silicon nitride reflectors

Julian Pita, Frederic Nabki, and Michaël Ménard

Open Access Open Access

Abstract

Reflectors play a pivotal role in silicon photonics since they are used in a wide range of applications, including attenuators, filters, and lasers. This Letter presents six silicon nitride reflectors implemented using the inverse design technique. They vary in footprint, ranging from 4 µm × 3 µm to 4 µm × 8 µm. The smaller device has an average simulated reflectivity of −1.5 dB, whereas the larger one exhibits an average reflectivity of −0.09 dB within the 1530 to 1625 nm range. The latter also presents a 1-dB bandwidth of 172 nm, spanning from 1508 to 1680 nm. Despite their resemblance to circular gratings, these devices are more intricate and compact, particularly due to their non-intuitive features near the input waveguide, which include rough holes and teeth. The roughness of these features significantly contributes to the performance of the devices. The reflectors were fabricated on a silicon nitride multi-project wafer (MPW) through a streamlined process involving only a single etching step. The 4 µm × 8 µm reflector demonstrates a remarkably high reflectivity of −0.26±0.11 dB across the 1530 to 1600 nm range, rendering it suitable for high-quality factor cavities with direct applications in lasers and optical communications.

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Data availability

Data underlying the results presented in this paper are not publicly available at this time but may be obtained from the authors upon reasonable request.

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Figures (2)
Fig. 1.
Fig. 1. (a) Schematics of a circular grating reflector and an inverse-designed reflector, alongside the reflected mode field profile. (b) Simulated reflectivity spectra for the fundamental TE mode of the six different prototypes, with an inset displaying the reflectivity within the wavelength range of the experimental measurements. The numbers in the legend near the solid lines indicate the length of the reflector, whereas the dashed lines show the effect of under- or over-etching the 4 µm $\times$ 8 µm reflector. (c) Images displaying the magnitude of the electric field at 1550 nm superimposed on the geometry of each optimized prototype.

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Fig. 2.
Fig. 2. (a) SEM images of the six prototypes approximately at the same scale. The label in the upper left corner indicates the length of the reflector. (b) Setup used for the experimental characterization. The device under test consisted of each reflector connected to a MMI, which in turn was linked to two surface grating couplers. (c) Measured reflectivity spectra for each prototype. The labels correspond to the length of the reflectors.

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