Etched Diffraction Grating Demultiplexers With Large Free-Spectral Range and Large Grating Facets

A design for etched diffraction grating demultiplexers is presented to obtain both large grating facets and a larger free-spectral range (FSR) using the optimal chirped diffraction orders for different facets. The large grating facets by using a large diffraction order contribute to lowering the manufacturing difficulty, and can provide lower polarization-dependent loss. However, usually the large diffraction order must lower the FSR of the device by all means. Based on the present design, the FSR can overlay the whole diffraction envelop for a special order, but avoid the influence of the adjacent diffraction envelops. Calculations indicate that the extinction ratio between the operated order and adjacent orders can attain a 35 dB or so, which makes the crosstalk from channels in adjacent envelops to those in the operated diffraction envelop acceptable