Liquid crystal grating coupling
First Claim
1. A tunable optical coupling arrangement for use with a relatively thin silicon waveguiding layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure, the tunable optical coupling arrangement comprising a substrate for supporting at least one diffractive optical element on a major surface thereof;
- and a liquid crystal layer disposed adjacent to the substrate and exhibiting a refractive index that changes as a function of wavelength, applied voltage waveform or temperature, the changeable refractive index utilized to control the deflection of an optical signal passing through the combination of the substrate and the liquid crystal layer so as to control the coupling angle of the optical signal into an associated layer and provide improved coupling efficiency.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A tunable optical coupling arrangement for use with a relatively thin (generally sub-micron thickness) silicon waveguiding layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) substrate. The arrangement comprises a multi-layer structure including a substrate for supporting one or more diffractive optical elements and a layer of tunable liquid crystal material. The multi-layer structure is disposed over a conventional SOI substrate including the thin silicon waveguiding layer, where the refractive index of the liquid crystal material can be modified to adjust the deflection of an input optical beam through the various diffractive optical elements and present an optimized launch angle into the silicon waveguiding layer, thus reducing insertion loss at the waveguiding layer.
32 Citations
18 Claims
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1. A tunable optical coupling arrangement for use with a relatively thin silicon waveguiding layer of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) structure, the tunable optical coupling arrangement comprising
a substrate for supporting at least one diffractive optical element on a major surface thereof; - and
a liquid crystal layer disposed adjacent to the substrate and exhibiting a refractive index that changes as a function of wavelength, applied voltage waveform or temperature, the changeable refractive index utilized to control the deflection of an optical signal passing through the combination of the substrate and the liquid crystal layer so as to control the coupling angle of the optical signal into an associated layer and provide improved coupling efficiency. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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Specification