Integrated holographic filters for flat passband optical multiplexers.

Lithographically rendered, slab-waveguide-based, volume holographic filters are shown, via fabrication and test, capable of providing fully integrated, single-mode compatible, flat-topped and low loss filtering for wide bandwidth multiplexers as, for example, used in coarse wave-division multiplexing (CWDM). Single-mode compatibility is preserved since the filters operate via multi-path interference like thin-film filters rather than the angular dispersion typically utilized by grating type devices. Flexible apodization, entirely consistent with simple binary etch, is employed to provide steep passband falloff. High reflectivity and wide bandwidth is enabled through a tailored dual core waveguide geometry providing for mode concentration on the diffractive elements.

Diffraction-limited performance of flat-substrate reflective imaging gratings patterned by DUV photolithography.

We report on the first demonstration of flat substrate imaging gratings fabricated by deep ultraviolet (DUV) photoreduction lithography, which uniquely offers sub-100-nm resolution and spatial coherence over centimeter scales. Reflective focusing gratings, designed according to holographic principle, were fabricated on 300-mm silicon wafers by immersion DUV lithography. Spatial coherence of the fabrication process is evident in measured diffraction-limited imaging function. Flat-substrate gratings, with lines of arbitrary spacing and curvature, offer both dispersion and general spatial wavefront transformation combining the function of multiple optical elements. Fabrication at the sub-100-nm resolution level allows high-line-count, low-order efficient gratings even into the deep ultraviolet region. Nanoreplication of gratings at the wafer level provides a pathway to devices of ultimate low cost.

Interferometric amplitude apodization of integrated gratings.

Modern photolithography with its sub-hundred-nanometer-scale resolution and cm-scale spatial coherence provides for the creation of powerful waveguide diffractive structures useful as integrated spectral filters, multiplexers, spatial signal routers, interconnects, etc. Application of such structures is facilitated by a lithographically friendly means of amplitude apodization, which allows for programming of general spectral and spatial transfer functions. We describe here an approach to implementing flexible binary-etch-compatible diffractive amplitude control based on the decomposition of diffractive structures into subregions each of whose diffractive contours are spatially positioned so as to interferometrically control the net diffractive amplitude and phase of the subregion. The present approach is uniquely powerful because it allows for substantial decoupling of amplitude and phase apodization.

Planar-waveguide integrated spectral comparator.

A cost-effective yet robust and versatile dual-channel spectral comparator is presented. The silica-on-silicon planar-waveguide integrated device includes two holographic Bragg-grating reflectors (HBRs) with complementary spectral transfer functions. Output comprises projections of input signal spectra onto the complementary spectral channels. Spectral comparators may be useful in optical code-division multiplexing, optical packet decoding, spectral target recognition, and the identification of molecular spectra. HBRs may be considered to be mode-specific photonic crystals.