Integrated waveguide turning mirror in silicon-on-insulator.

Planar lightwave circuits based on silicon are playing an important role in integrated optical systems. The integrated waveguide turning mirror (IWTM) is an essential component for the compactness of optical devices. We have designed such a mirror with a 90° directional change in silicon-on-insulator (SOI). The fabricated mirror has very small surface roughness. The loss caused by transverse tilt δt and lateral tilt δl is negligible in theory. A 1 × 2 beam splitter using the structure is fabricated to test the performance, and turning mirrors of excess loss less than 0.5 dB/mirror are obtained [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]