Efficient integrated tri-modal coupler for few-mode fibers.

This paper demonstrates a high-efficiency vertical grating coupler for the LP, LP, and LP modes of a graded-index few-mode fiber. The coupler is composed of a non-uniform straight bidirectional grating that was inverse-designed to address the desired fiber modes, combined with two mode-selective directional couplers and two tapers. The device was fabricated by e-beam lithography with a minimum feature size of 100 nm and presented coupling efficiencies of -3.

Compact dual-polarization silicon integrated couplers for multicore fibers.

Compact fiber-to-chip couplers play an important role in optical interconnections, especially in data centers. However, the development of couplers has been mostly limited to standard single-mode fibers, with few devices compatible with multicore and multimode fibers. Through the use of state-of-the-art optimization algorithms, we designed a compact dual-polarization coupler to interface chips and dense multicore fibers, demonstrating, for the first time, coupling to both polarizations of all the cores, with measured coupling efficiency of -4.

Optimization of the electromagnetic scattering problem based on the topological derivative method.

A new optimization method based on the topological derivative concept is developed for the electromagnetic design problem. Essentially, the purpose of the topological derivative method is to measure the sensitivity of a given shape functional with respect to a singular domain perturbation, so that it has applications in many relevant fields such as shape and topology optimization for imaging processing, inverse problems, and design of metamaterials. The topological derivative is rigorously derived for the electromagnetic scattering problem and used as gradient descent direction to find local optima for the design of electromagnetic devices.

Trimodal Waveguide Demonstration and Its Implementation as a High Order Mode Interferometer for Sensing Application.

This work implements and demonstrates an interferometric transducer based on a trimodal optical waveguide concept. The readout signal is generated from the interference between the fundamental and second-order modes propagating on a straight polymer waveguide. Intuitively, the higher the mode order, the larger the fraction of power (evanescent field) propagating outside the waveguide core, hence the higher the sensitivity that can be achieved when interfering against the strongly confined fundamental mode.

Dielectric barrier discharge plasma treatment of modified SU-8 for biosensing applications.

In this work we demonstrate the use of a dielectric barrier discharge plasma for the treatment of SU-8. The resulting hydrophilic surface displays a 5° contact angle and (0.40 ± 0.

Design of a compact CMOS-compatible photonic antenna by topological optimization.

Photonic antennas are critical in applications such as spectroscopy, photovoltaics, optical communications, holography, and sensors. In most of those applications, metallic antennas have been employed due to their reduced sizes. Nevertheless, compact metallic antennas suffer from high dissipative loss, wavelength-dependent radiation pattern, and they are difficult to integrate with CMOS technology.

Side-lobe level reduction in bio-inspired optical phased-array antennas.

Phased arrays are expected to play a critical role in visible and infrared wireless systems. Their improved performance compared to single element antennas finds uses in communications, imaging, and sensing. However, fabrication of photonic antennas and their feeding network require long element separation, leading to the appearance of secondary radiation lobes and, consequently, crosstalk and interference.

Full three-dimensional isotropic carpet cloak designed by quasi-conformal transformation optics.

A fully three-dimensional carpet cloak presenting invisibility in all viewing angles is theoretically demonstrated. The design is developed using transformation optics and three-dimensional quasi-conformal mapping. Parametrization strategy and numerical optimization of the coordinate transformation deploying a quasi-Newton method is applied.

Three-dimensional quasi-conformal transformation optics through numerical optimization.

In this paper we demonstrate the possibility to achieve 3-dimensional quasi-conformal transformation optics through parametrization and numerical optimization without using sliding boundary conditions. The proposed technique, which uses a quasi-Newton method, is validated in two cylindrical waveguide bends as design examples. Our results indicate an arbitrarily small average anisotropy can be achieved in 3D transformation optics as the number of degrees of freedom provided by the parametrization was increased.

Study of a low-cost trimodal polymer waveguide for interferometric optical biosensors.

A novel evanescent wave biosensor based on modal interaction between the fundamental mode and the second order mode is proposed and numerically demonstrated. By taking advantage of their symmetries, it is possible to design a device where only the fundamental and the second order modes can propagate, without excitation of the first order mode. With this selection of modes it is possible to achieve a high sensitivity behavior in the biosensor configuration, due to the strong interaction between the evanescent field and the outer surface as compared to previous evanescent wave-based biosensor designs.

Anisotropy minimization via least squares method for transformation optics.

In this work the least squares method is used to reduce anisotropy in transformation optics technique. To apply the least squares method a power series is added on the coordinate transformation functions. The series coefficients were calculated to reduce the deviations in Cauchy-Riemann equations, which, when satisfied, result in both conformal transformations and isotropic media.

WDM-compatible mode-division multiplexing on a silicon chip.

Significant effort in optical-fibre research has been put in recent years into realizing mode-division multiplexing (MDM) in conjunction with wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) to enable further scaling of the communication bandwidth per fibre. In contrast, almost all integrated photonics operate exclusively in the single-mode regime. MDM is rarely considered for integrated photonics because of the difficulty in coupling selectively to high-order modes, which usually results in high inter-modal crosstalk.

Transformation inverse design.

We present a new technique for the design of transformation-optics devices based on large-scale optimization to achieve the optimal effective isotropic dielectric materials within prescribed index bounds, which is computationally cheap because transformation optics circumvents the need to solve Maxwell's equations at each step. We apply this technique to the design of multimode waveguide bends (realized experimentally in a previous paper) and mode squeezers, in which all modes are transported equally without scattering. In addition to the optimization, a key point is the identification of the correct boundary conditions to ensure reflectionless coupling to untransformed regions while allowing maximum flexibility in the optimization.

On-chip transformation optics for multimode waveguide bends.

Current optical communication systems rely almost exclusively on multimode fibres for short- and medium-haul transmissions, and are now expanding into the long-haul arena. Ultra-high bandwidth applications are the main drive for this expansion, based on the ability to spatially multiplex data channels in multimode systems. Integrated photonics, on the other hand, although largely responsible for today's telecommunications, continues to operate almost strictly in the single-mode regime.

Integrated Luneburg lens via ultra-strong index gradient on silicon.

Gradient index structures are gaining increased importance with the constant development of Transformation Optics and metamaterials. Our ability to fabricate such devices, while limited, has already demonstrated the extensive capabilities of those designs, in the forms of invisibility devices, as well as illusion optics and super-lensing. In this paper we present a low loss, high index contrast lens that is integrated with conventional nanophotonic waveguides to provide improved tolerance in fiber-to-chip optical links for future communication networks.

Focusing light in a curved-space.

We use transformation optics to demonstrate 2D silicon nanolenses, with wavelength-independent focal point. The lenses are designed and fabricated with dimensions ranging from 5.0 microm x 5.