Design for tunable optofluidic optical coupler with large dynamic range

Abstract

A novel scheme for tunable optofluidic optical coupler is proposed by combining directional coupling waveguide structures with microfluidic channel. The normalized optical power at two output ports can be dynamically manipulated by controlling the refractive index of liquid mixture in microfluidic channel. Its optical performance is numerically investigated by employing the beam propagation method (BPM). The simulated results show that the dynamic range of over 45 dB, and optical loss of below 0.06 dB can be easily achieved, and furthermore the dependence of polarization states and operation wavelength in the range from 1500 nm to 1600 nm are very low in our designed device. In addition, the tunable optofluidic coupler has advantages including simple structure and large fabrication tolerance. Accordingly, our proposed device offers a new approach for manipulating optical power output, which has wide potential application in optofluidic systems.