Characteristic analysis of spatial light coupling with silicon photonic grating coupler

Space-chip coupling using silicon photonic grating coupler is of great significance for OPA-based LIDAR (Optical Phased Array, OPA), free-space data communication, and so on. However, Silicon-based grating couplers are commonly used for fiber-chip coupling and space-chip coupling is rarely mentioned. In order to obtain the optimal coupling effect, commercial three-dimensional Finite Difference Time-Domain (3D FDTD) software is employed to simulate the coupling process and analyze the characteristics of spatial light coupling. Because the spot size is in the order of micrometer, we first build a vector beam with three variables of numerical aperture, lens diameter and beam diameter for simulation. Afterwards, the incident location of the spatial light beam, the incident angle and the grating width are scanned to explore the influence of these parameters on coupling efficiency. We have found that the total coupling efficiency changes with grating width exponentially. That is, the total coupling efficiency firstly increases with the grating width, and does not change after reaching the maximum value. However, the coupling efficiency of the fundamental mode decreases gradually after reaching the maximum value. This indicates that higher-order modes are more likely to be excited when the width is greater than the optimized grating width. Besides, the coupling efficiency varies parabolically with the incident angle and location of the spatial light beam. There exists optimal incident angle and location on the parabola symmetry axis to get the maximum coupling efficiency. Furthermore, the best incident position is half of the beam diameter from the beginning of grating coupler.