Phase engineering for ring enhanced Mach-Zehnder interferometers

Abstract

Ring resonators are waveguide realizations of Fabry-Perot resonators which can be readily integrated in array geometries to implement many useful functions. Its nonlinear phase response can be readily incorporated into a Mach-Zehnder interferometer to produce specific intensity output function. We present two generalized array configurations of ring-coupled MZI and discuss their characteristics in terms of the amplitude and phase response of the ring arrays as well as the transmission output of the MZIs. The two types of array have distinct transfer functions and effective phase shifts, and can be tailored to phase-engineer a wide range of MZI transmission functions.