Reduction in Crosstalk between Integrated Anisotropic Optical Waveguides

Abstract

The minimization of waveguide crosstalk is a long-standing challenge for optical engineers. Nowadays, the most popular technique to suppress crosstalk is anisotropic nanostructures, realized as subwavelength stripes between waveguides. However, the influence of material anisotropy on the efficiency of such structures remains unknown. In this work, we consider MoS2 waveguides separated by MoS2 stripes because this material has the record value of optical anisotropy. We discover that the use of MoS2 instead of Si results in a several-orders-of-magnitude-larger crosstalk distance. Therefore, we envision that by combining the extraordinary material properties with the known crosstalk-suppression methods, one can make the integration density of photonic devices close to electronics.

Keywords

• optical waveguides
• crosstalk distance
• photonic integrated circuits
• transition metal dichalcogenides
• van der Waals materials
• anisotropic materials