Control of SOI waveguide polarization properties for microphotonic applications

Waveguide birefringence in SOI AWGs was studied for different cross-sections. It was found that trapezoidal shapes are less sensitive to dimension fluctuations, and can be used to relax the dimension control requirements. Top oxide cladding induced significant photoelastic birefringence. We demonstrated the use of this property for birefringence tuning, which we believe opens a new avenue of birefringence control for microphotonic applications.