Vertically coupled optical resonator devices over a cross-grid waveguide architecture

Abstract

Optical resonators are vertically coupled on top of bus waveguides, and are separated from the waveguides by a buffer layer of arbitrary thickness. The vertical arrangement eliminates the need for etching fine gaps to separate the rings and guides, and reduces the alignment sensitivity between the desired position of the resonator and bus waveguides by a significant degree. The resonator and bus waveguides lie in different vertical layers, and each can therefore be optimized independently. A ring resonator can be optimized for higher index contrast in the plane, small size, and low bending loss, while the bus waveguides can be designed to have lower index contrast in the plane, low propagation losses, and dimensions that make them suitable for matching to optical fibers. The waveguides can also have any lateral placement underneath the ring resonators and are not restricted by the placement of the rings. Furthermore, with the resonators lying on the top layer of the structure, they are easily accessed for tuning and trimming.