Efficient pump–signal combiner for stimulated Raman scattering in photonic crystal waveguide

A silicon photonic crystal (PhC)-based structure is proposed to efficiently couple power from two different wavelengths, targeted to the application of an integrable Raman amplifier. The coupler uses two asymmetrical PhC waveguides as input ports which are joined together and the coupled power is directed to a slotted photonic crystal waveguide-based output port. Coupling efficiency and the other performance metrics are evaluated using a three-dimensional full-vector finite-difference time domain simulation method, which is tested for accuracy using some existing experimental structures and corresponding results. The heuristic approach has been adopted to optimize the design for maximizing the coupling efficiency. Dependence of the coupling performance on different design parameters has also been investigated. Simulations exhibit ∼3-dB coupling losses for both arms in a small footprint as small as ∼54  μm2.