Design, Fabrication, and Characterization of Si-Based ARROW-B Photonic Crystal Sharp-Bend Waveguides and Power Splitters

Si-based type-B antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW-B) photonic crystal waveguides (PCWs) with 60° bend, 120° bend, and Y-branch power splitter were first successfully fabricated and characterized. A simple capsule-shaped defect was designed to modulate the 60° and 120° photonic crystal (PC) bend corners and Y-branch PC power splitters. In the preliminary experiments, the average bend losses of 60° and 120° PC bend waveguides for both polarizations were lower than 1.5 and 4.2 dB/bend, respectively. For the Y-branch PC power splitters, power imbalances for both polarizations were all lower than 0.7 dB. It shows that the fabricated Si-based ARROW-B PCWs can provide good light sharp-bend ability and power-split ability.