Abstract

An investigation into methods for achromatizing the coupling angle characteristics of waveguide input/output couplers is described. The basic approach involves correcting the inherent angular dispersion of conventional waveguide couplers with a diffraction grating. Two configurations are analyzed in detail: a hybrid prism/grating coupler and a double grating coupler. Expressions are derived for values of the grating parameters that produce achromatic coupling. A method is also presented to predict the achromatic wavelength range and maximize it with the available degrees of freedom. For a coupling angle tolerance of 0.005°, it is found that with double grating couplers achromatic wavelength ranges of the order of 10 nm can be obtained, and that with prism/grating couplers this range can be as large as 200 nm.

© 1991 Optical Society of America

Analytic design of an achromatic double grating coupler

Yaakov Amitai and Joseph W. Goodman
Appl. Opt. 30(21) 2970-2974 (1991)

Achromatic waveguide lenses

Kevin E. Spaulding and G. Michael Morris
Appl. Opt. 30(18) 2558-2569 (1991)

Holographic Bragg grating input–output couplers for polymer waveguides at an 850-nm wavelength

Qiang Huang and Paul R. Ashley
Appl. Opt. 36(6) 1198-1203 (1997)

70-nm-bandwidth achromatic waveguide coupler

Sergio B. Mendes, Lifeng Li, James J. Burke, John E. Lee, and S. Scott Saavedra
Appl. Opt. 34(27) 6180-6186 (1995)

High efficiency input–output prism waveguide coupler: an analysis

Dror Sarid
Appl. Opt. 18(17) 2921-2926 (1979)