Design of a 1 ×4 silicon-alumina wavelength demultiplexer based on multimode interference in slot waveguide structures

In this paper we present 1 ×4 wavelength demultiplexer operating at 1.4 μm, 1.45 μm, 1.5 μm and 1.55 μm wavelengths, based on multimode interference (MMI) coupler in slot waveguide structure. Alumina was used as the slot material. The design is based on three cascaded 1 ×2 MMI demultiplexers. Tapered waveguide structures are being in the input/output of the MMI section, for reducing the excess loss. Since the slot waveguide encompasses true guided modes, confined by total internal reflections, there are no noticeable confinement losses. Full vectorial-beam propagation method (FV-BPM) and BPM simulations were used for optimizing the device parameters and assessing its performance. To the best of our knowledge it is the first time that a 1 ×4 demultiplexer is being implemented by a slot waveguide based MMI.