Tunable Optical Delay Line Based on a Racetrack Resonator with Tunable Coupling and Stable Wavelength

Abstract

For optical sensing or biomedical sensing where the light source usually has a stable and narrow linewidth, the design rule of the tunable optical delay line (ODL) can be different from the ODLs for optical communications and buffering. We present here a novel way to tune a racetrack resonator-based ODL by push–pull operation to stabilize the resonant wavelength. Full device simulation that accounts for the thermal tuning effect and the photonic characteristics of the whole integrated device is conducted to verify the characteristics of the tunable ODLs. With the simple racetrack resonator, the group delay can simply be tuned by changing the coupling coefficient of the resonator while the wavelength is stabilized by tuning the racetrack loop. A tuning of hundreds of picoseconds is achievable with a very compact device and small power consumption.