Applications in, e.g., optical communication, light routing, and emerging optical quantum technologies on a chip call for waveguide networks featuring tight control over the photons used. Quantum simulators on a chip harness this high level of control to guide and manipulate entangled photon states in sophisticated networks to gain insight into the role of entanglement in interacting many-body systems.
We have recently shown direct laser written polymer waveguides fabricated from a low-fluorescent negative tone photoresist via two-photon lithography [1]. These waveguides feature bend radii down to 40 µm and loss coefficients smaller than 0.81 dB/mm, facilitating networks with high integration density. For coupling control, a novel three-dimensional coupler design was shown, giving optical access to all in- and outputs of the waveguide network simultaneously via one microscope objective.
We present an in-depth analysis and optimization of these coupling structures in simulation and experiment.
References:
[1] A. Landowski et al., APL Photonics 2, 106102 (2017)
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