Design of Polarization-Insensitive Directional Couplers and Multimode Interference Couplers Integrated with Bragg Grating Waveguide

This paper presents a rigorous comparison of the design characteristics of polarization-insensitive directional coupler (DC) and multimode interference (MMI) coupler based on rib type waveguides, by using longitudinal modal transmission-line theory (L-MTLT). It shows that the multimode mixing and interference property of MMI can be structurally designed through the continuous evolution of the two-mode coupling property of DC. It also compares and analyzes the coupling efficiency along with the coupling length and the wavelength between polarization-insensitive DC and MMI. From the design properties obtained, it demonstrates for the first time the integration of polarization-insensitive DC or MMI with a Bragg grating and evaluates precisely the filtering characteristics. The numerical results reveal that the DC, as long as it is designed to have the same coupling length for TE and TM modes, has better performance than the MMI in polarization-insensitive filtering behaviour. However, it shows that the MMI with much less coupling length than DC is preferred in the miniaturization of integrated devices.