Design and fabrication of high efficiency power coupler between different photonic crystal waveguides

Based on inspiration from an inverse optimization strategy and theoretical finite-difference time-domain method simulations, an ultralow loss power coupler between two different photonic crystal waveguides was designed, fabricated and characterized. The experimental results showed that the loss was less than 1 dB for transverse electric polarized light at a wavelength of 1550 nm, which is consistent with expectations from numerical modeling. High efficiency optical couplers are critical for development of integrated optical circuit functionality.