Planar Lightwave Circuits Employing Coupled Waveguides In Aluminum Gallium Arsenide

This dissertation addresses three research challenges in planar lightwave circuit (PLC) optical signal processing.1. Dynamic localization, a relatively new class of quantum phenomena, has not been demonstrated in any system to date. To address this challenge, the quantum system was mapped to the optical domain using a set of curved, coupled PLC waveguides in aluminum gallium arsenide (AlGaAs). The devices demonstrated, for the first time, exact dynamic localization in any system. These experiments motivate further mappings of quantum phenomena in the optical domain, leading toward the design of novel optical signal processing devices using these quantum-analog effects.3. PLCs are ideal candidates to satisfy the projected performance requirements of future microchip interconnects. In addition to data routing, these PLCs must provide over 100-bit switchable delays operating at ∼ 1 Tbit/s. To date, no low loss optical device has met these requirements. To address this challenge, an ultrafast, low loss, switchable optically controllable delay line was fabricated in AlGaAs, capable of delaying 126 bits, with a bit-period of 1.5 ps. This successful demonstrator offers a practical solution for the incorporation of optics with microelectronics systems.The three aforementioned projects all employ, in their unique way, the coupling of light between PLC waveguides in AlGaAs. This central theme is explored in this dissertation in both its two- and multi-waveguide embodiments.2. The PLC microresonator promises to reduce PLC device size and increase optical signal processing functionality. Microresonators in a parallel cascaded configuration, called "side coupled integrated spaced sequence of resonators" (SCISSORs), could offer very interesting dispersion compensation abilities, if a sufficient number of rings is present to produce fully formed "Bragg" gaps. To date, a SCISSOR with only three rings has been reported in a high-index material system. In this work, one, two, four and eight-ring SCISSORs were fabricated in AlGaAs. The eight-ring SCISSOR succeeded in producing fully formed Bragg peaks, and offers a platform to study interesting linear and nonlinear phenomena such as dispersion compensators and gap solitons.