Multimode Interference based Y-Branch Polymer Optical Waveguide Splitter: Design and Investigation
Md Koushik Alam, Noor Afsary, MD Omar Faruk Rasel, Takaaki Ishigure
Abstract
We demonstrate multimode interference (MMI)-based Y-branch single-mode step-index (SI) core polymer optical waveguide splitter for the development of optical circuitry. This polymer waveguide splitter consists of a single input and multiple (six) outputs realized with organic-inorganic hybrid polymer materials. We set the core width for input and outputs of this polymer waveguide splitter as a single-mode, where the core width is particularly <tex xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">$6.5\ \mu\mathrm{m}$</tex> . We design and demonstrate this Y-branch waveguide splitter using the beam propagation method at 1550-nm wavelength following the self-imaging principle. The power efficiency of this MMI-based Y-branch polymer waveguide splitter is 71%, and the excess loss is 1.4 dB.