High-density waveguide superlattices with low crosstalk

Abstract

Silicon photonics holds great promise for low-cost large-scale photonic integration. In its future development, integration density will play an ever-increasing role in a way similar to that witnessed in integrated circuits. Waveguides are perhaps the most ubiquitous component in silicon photonics. As such, the density of waveguide elements is expected to have a crucial influence on the integration density of a silicon photonic chip. A solution to high-density waveguide integration with minimal impact on other performance metrics such as crosstalk remains a vital issue in many applications. Here, we propose a waveguide superlattice and demonstrate advanced superlattice design concepts such as interlacing-recombination that enable high-density waveguide integration at a half-wavelength pitch with low crosstalk. Such waveguide superlattices can potentially lead to significant reduction in on-chip estate for waveguide elements and salient enhancement of performance for important applications, opening up possibilities for half-wavelength-pitch optical-phased arrays and ultra-dense space-division multiplexing.