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Stanford Researchers Make Photonic Components Faster, With Algorithmic Design
retroworks writes: Integrated photonic devices are poised to play a key role in a wide variety of applications, ranging from optical interconnects and sensors to quantum computing. However, only a small library of semi-analytically designed devices is currently known. In an article in Nature Photonics, researchers demonstrate the use of an inverse design method that explores the full design space of fabricable devices and allows them to design devices with previously unattainable functionality, higher performance and robustness, and smaller footprints than conventional devices. The designed a silicon wavelength demultiplexer splits 1,300nm and 1,550nm light from an input waveguide into two output waveguides, and the team has fabricated and characterized several devices. The devices display low insertion loss (2dB), low crosstalk (100nm). The device footprint is 2.8×2.8m2, making this the smallest dielectric wavelength splitter.
The device footprint is 2.8x2.8m2
The actual measurement, from TFA, is 2.8x2.8 square micrometers.
Apparently timothy is too busy burying unflattering stories about his employer to bother reading what he's posting to the front page.
How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
Things like this are used a lot in telecommunications, they allow multiple wavelengths of light to travel over a single fiber, cutting down on the amount of glass needed and increasing the bandwidth.
The summary seems to have been screwed up by some sort of comment glitch. It should read:
"low crosstalk (<11dB) and wide bandwidths (>100nm)"
The preceding line was intentionally left blank.
The waveguide has a very small cross-section. Wonder how they coupled fiber to the ports. End-fire coupling directly to a fiber would be horrendously inefficient, since minimizing coupling loss requires both a good spatial overlap of the mode profiles and a good match of the effective refractive indices in the two waveguides.