Experimental demonstration of an ultracompact Si-nanowire-based reflective arrayed-waveguide grating (de)multiplexer with photonic crystal reflectors

An ultracompact reflective arrayed-waveguide grating (AWG) (de)multiplexer based on Si nanowires is demonstrated for the first time (to our knowledge). Each waveguide in the array has an individual photonic crystal (PhC) reflector at its end, making the AWG layout design very flexible. An eight-channel AWG (de)multiplexer with a channel spacing of 400 GHz is demonstrated experimentally. The total size of the fabricated AWG is as small as 134mumx115mum. The excess loss of the fabricated reflective AWG (de)multiplexer is about 3-4 dB, and the crosstalk is about -12dB.