Compact variable optical attenuator based on multimode interference coupler

Author

Jiang, Xiaoqing ; Li, Xia ; Zhou, Haifeng ; Yang, Jianyi ; Wang, Minghua ; Wu, Yuying ; Ishikawa, Shigeta

Author_Institution

Dept. of Inf. Sci. & Electron. Eng., Zhejiang Univ., Hangzhou, China

Volume

17

Issue

11

fYear

2005

Firstpage

2361

Lastpage

2363

Abstract

Utilizing the thermooptical effect of polymers, a compact variable optical attenuator (VOA) based on multimode interference (MMI) is demonstrated. By directly modulating in the MMI region according to overlapping imaging of MMI, variable attenuation is achieved. The device length is less than 6 mm. The experiment shows that the VOA has 25-dB attenuation at the driving power of only 7.8 mW. The response time is around 3-4 ms. The polarization-dependence loss is 0.3 and 0.8 dB when the attenuation is less than 15 dB and about 20 dB, respectively.

Keywords

integrated optics; light polarisation; optical attenuators; optical couplers; optical losses; optical modulation; optical polymers; thermo-optical devices; thermo-optical effects; 3 to 4 ms; 7.8 mW; MMI modulation; compact optical attenuator; multimode interference coupler; overlapping imaging; polarization-dependent loss; polymers; thermooptical effect; variable attenuation; variable optical attenuator; Intensity modulation; Interference; Optical attenuators; Optical coupling; Optical imaging; Optical interferometry; Optical polymers; Optical waveguides; Phase modulation; Stimulated emission; Integrated optics; multimode interference (MMI); polymer; thermooptic (TO) effect; variable optical attenuation;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2005.857238

Filename

1522320