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A compact supermode switch for photonic matrix processing
Optics Letters- received 03/27/2024; accepted 04/19/2024; posted 04/22/2024; Doc. ID 524988
- Abstract: A 2×2 switch based on differential effective thermo-optic (TO) coefficients of waveguide supermodes is proposed and experimentally demonstrated as a more compact alternative to Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) based switches used in coherent photonic matrix processing networks. The total waveguide width of the device is 1.335μm. Using a novel wideband 3-dB supermode coupler, the switch was engineered to have on-off extinction ratios (ERs) ranging from 24.1dB to 38.9dB for the two output ports over a 135nm bandwidth. Insertion losses (ILs) of less than 0.3dB and 0.4dB over the 100nm bandwidth were measured for bar and cross transmission, respectively. The waveguide width-error tolerance is +/-30nm. The proposed device has the potential to improve the scalability of programmable coherent mesh for matrix processing by increasing the integration density without sacrificing the overall accuracy or limiting the operational wavelength range of the mesh.