Compact multichannel reconfigurable mode demultiplexer enabled by phase change material

Abstract

The reconfigurable mode demultiplexer is a crucial component for flexibly routing modes into different channels in on-chip multimode photonic systems with enhanced information processing capabilities. In this paper, we present a multichannel reconfigurable mode demultiplexer enabled by ultralow-loss phase-changing Sb2Se3. By harnessing the phase-change-mediated mode coupling in asymmetric directional couplers (ADCs), one or more of the higher-order modes including TE1, TE2 and TE3 modes could be selectively dropped from the bus waveguide with low losses. With an optimized ADCs structure, the proposed mode demultiplexer demonstrates insertion loss less than 0.227 dB in the ON (amorphous) state and the extinction ratios large than 23.28 dB over the C-band. By coupling the access waveguides of the higher-order mode in parallel on both sides of the bus waveguide, the device size can be compact with a footprint of ∼ 7 × 75 µm2, and this design approach can be further extended to enable more higher-order mode multiplexing.