Widely Wavelength-Tunable Mode Converter Based on Polymer Waveguide Grating

Abstract

We design and fabricate a corrugated grating on a polymer waveguide for the realization of the conversion between the fundamental mode and the higher order mode. The transmission characteristics of the device are insensitive to the polarization state of the input light. Our typical fabricated device shows a mode conversion efficiency higher than 99% over a bandwidth of ~4 nm and a temperature sensitivity of 3.5 nm/°C, which allows the operation wavelength of the device to be tuned over the C + L band with a temperature control <;30 °C. This mode converter could be integrated with other waveguide devices to realize more sophisticated functions for mode-division-multiplexing systems.