Design of a Polarization-Insensitive and High-Efficiency Coplanar Edge Coupler for Silicon Photonics by Using a Polished Conical Silicon-Cored-Fiber

Abstract

Optical coupling between an external optical fiber and a silicon waveguide is vital for successful silicon photonics applications. Direct edge coupling has been desirable but challenging in the past to substitute for bulky, non-coplanar grating-assisted coupling. A silicon-cored fiber (SCF) is proposed as a novel solution for coplanar light coupling from an incoming fiber to a silicon waveguide. The simulation results show that an optimized polished conical SCF coupler can reach very high coupling efficiencies in both TE and TM modes and with low polarization dependence.

Keywords

• Fiber-to-chip coupling
• edge coupling
• silicon-cored fiber