Multimode-interference-coupled ring resonators based on total-internal-reflection mirrors

Abstract

We investigate the properties of a multimode-interference (MMI) coupled ring cavity resonator with total-internal-reflection (TIR) mirrors and a semiconductor optical amplifier (SOA) in an InGaAsP material system. The TIR mirrors were fabricated by the self-aligned process with a loss of about 1.4 dB per mirror. The resulting free spectral range (FSR) was approximately 0.8 nin (97 GHz) near 1569 rim. The on-off ratio and the full width at half maximum (FWHM) were 8 dB and 0.152 nm, respectively, corresponding to a finesse of 5.2 and a Q factor of 10,322. Hence, such resonators can be directly integrated with other devices making possible the fabrication of compact and highly functional photonic integrated circuits.