Reduced lateral leakage losses of TM-like modes in silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguides

We numerically investigate the lateral leakage loss behavior for TM-like modes in silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguides. In order to improve the leakage loss properties, we propose a novel ridge waveguide structure where a dimple is introduced at the ridge center. It is shown that the ridge waveguide with a dimple is both low loss and fabrication tolerant. This behavior is predicted by not only an accurate finite-element-based analysis but also a simple, phenomenological effective-index-based analysis. (c) 2008 Optical Society of America.