Transmission-Efficient Structures of Bent and Crossing Silicon Slot Waveguides

Abstract

We present transmission-efficient bent and crossing silicon slot waveguides for compact silicon slot waveguide-based circuits. To begin with, using the 3-D vector finite-element method, we investigate the transmission characteristics of a bent silicon slot waveguide with an asymmetric slot that is connected to straight waveguides. Numerical results show that the transmission efficiency can be improved by optimizing a taper structure that is introduced between the bend of an asymmetric slot waveguide and its straight input/output waveguides. Next, we investigate the transmission characteristics of a 3-D crossing silicon slot waveguide that has a vertical coupler. Numerical results show that our crossing structure can achieve a high transmission efficiency compared with conventional structures.

Keywords

• Slot waveguides
• optical interconnects
• finite-element methods