LAUSR

Abstract Faced with the increasing capacity requirements of on-chip optical interconnects, multiplexing technologies are emerging as attractive solutions. For the on-chip mode-division-multiplexing (MDM) transmission, the development of key mode conversion components takes dominance. Here, we propose a compact and efficient silicon-based TE0-to-TM1 mode-order converter, where a designed and optimized polygonal metal layer is deposited on the top surface of the input/output silicon nanowire. Due to the introduction of metal plasmonic effect and used segmental optimization ways for the top metal layer, the mode-order conversion length has been greatly shortened to only 3.5 μm. By analyzing the top metal layer pattern on the silicon nanowire in detail, we have achieved a silicon-based TE0-to-TM1 mode-order converter with its modal conversion efficiency, crosstalk and insertion loss of 94.2%,