Low-loss multimode interference couplers for terahertz waves

Christos Themistos; Kyriacos Kalli; Michael Komodromos; Christos Markides; Anita Quadir; B. M. Azizur Rahman; Kenneth T. V. Grattan

doi:10.1117/12.925655

25 April 2012 Low-loss multimode interference couplers for terahertz waves

Christos Themistos, Kyriacos Kalli, Michael Komodromos, Christos Markides, Anita Quadir, B. M. Azizur Rahman, Kenneth T. V. Grattan

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 8426, Microstructured and Specialty Optical Fibres; 84260X (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925655
Event: SPIE Photonics Europe, 2012, Brussels, Belgium

Abstract

The terahertz (THz) frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum is located between the traditional microwave spectrum and the optical frequencies, and offers a significant scientific and technological potential in many fields, such as in sensing, in imaging and in spectroscopy. Waveguiding in this intermediate spectral region is a major challenge. Amongst the various THz waveguides suggested, metal-clad plasmonic waveguides and specifically hollow core structures, coated with insulating material are the most promising low-loss waveguides used in both active and passive devices. Optical power splitters are important components in the design of optoelectronic systems and optical communication networks such as Mach-Zehnder Interferometric switches, polarization splitter and polarization scramblers. Several designs for the implementation of the 3dB power splitters have been proposed in the past, such as the directional coupler-based approach, the Y-junction-based devices and the MMI-based approach. In the present paper a novel MMI-based 3dB THz wave splitter is implemented using Gold/polystyrene (PS) coated hollow glass rectangular waveguides. The H-field FEM based full-vector formulation is used here to calculate the complex propagation characteristics of the waveguide structure and the finite element beam propagation method (FE-BPM) and finite difference time domain (FDTD) approach to demonstrate the performance of the proposed 3dB splitter.

Citation Download Citation

Christos Themistos, Kyriacos Kalli, Michael Komodromos, Christos Markides, Anita Quadir, B. M. Azizur Rahman, and Kenneth T. V. Grattan "Low-loss multimode interference couplers for terahertz waves", Proc. SPIE 8426, Microstructured and Specialty Optical Fibres, 84260X (25 April 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.925655

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