Penalty-free polarisation compensation of SiO ₂ /Siarrayed waveguide grating wavelength multiplexers using stress release grooves

Abstract

A new method for the compensation of polarisation sensitivity of arrayed waveguide grating wavelength multiplexers based on SiO2 is presented. By means of stress release grooves, fabrication induced waveguide birefringence is compensated without performance degradation. Reductions of TE/TM passband shifts from 0.66 nm to < 0.05 nm are demonstrated.