Design of a Broadband and Low Loss TM Magneto-Optical Waveguide Isolator Based on Lithium Niobate on Insulator

Abstract

We proposed a design of a fundamental TM mode waveguide optical isolator using lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) and deposited magneto-optical film. The optical isolator adopts an asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) structure composed of two 1 × 2 MMIs, non-reciprocal and reciprocal waveguides. We used three methods to calculate the non-reciprocal phase shift (NRPS) of the lithium niobate (LN)/ Ce: YIG composite waveguide and got similar results. The device shows about 51.98 nm 30 dB isolation bandwidth and 1.20 dB simulated insertion loss at the wavelength of 1550 nm. The fabrication tolerances and a suitable process are also discussed to meet the state-of-art technology and material properties.

Keywords

• Optical isolator
• nonreciprocal phase shift
• magneto-optical
• Mach-Zehnder interferometer
• lithium niobate on insulator