Anisotropic subwavelength grating perturbation enables zero crosstalk in a leaky mode

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel anisotropic subwavelength grating approach that achieves zero crosstalk in leaky modes, significantly enhancing dense photonic circuit integration by suppressing electromagnetic coupling.

Contribution

It demonstrates that anisotropic perturbations in SWG metamaterials can completely eliminate crosstalk in leaky modes, a breakthrough for photonic device miniaturization.

Findings

Achieved approximately 40 dB crosstalk suppression in experiments.

Extended coupling length by about 100 times compared to conventional waveguides.

Successfully suppressed TM mode crosstalk in leaky SWG waveguides.

Abstract

Electromagnetic coupling via either exponentially decaying evanescent field or radiative wave is a primary characteristic of light, allowing optical signal/power transfer but limiting integration density in a photonic circuit. A leaky mode combines both evanescent field and radiative wave, causing stronger crosstalk and thus not ideal for dense integration. Here we show that a leaky mode with anisotropic perturbation rather can achieve completely zero crosstalk realized by subwavelength grating (SWG) metamaterials. The oscillating fields in the SWGs enable coupling coefficients in each direction to counteract each other, resulting in completely zero crosstalk. We experimentally demonstrate such an extraordinarily low coupling between closely spaced identical leaky SWG waveguides, suppressing the crosstalk by $\approx$40 dB compared to conventional strip waveguides, corresponding to $\approx$100 times longer coupling length. This leaky-SWG suppresses the crosstalk of transverse-magnetic (TM) mode, which is challenging due to its low confinement, and marks a novel approach in electromagnetic coupling applicable to other spectral regimes and generic devices.