Experimental Demonstration of the High Alignment-Tolerant Behavior of a Mid-Infrared Waveguide Platform for Evanescent Field Sensing

Alignment tolerant coupling interfaces are an important feat for mid-IR waveguides when moving closer to real-world sensing applications, as they allow for an easy and fast replacement of waveguides. In this work, we demonstrate the alignment tolerant behavior of a germanium-on-silicon trenched waveguide platform with monolithically integrated microlenses using backside coupling of an expanded beam for evanescent field sensing between 6.5 and 7.5 μm. The chip with a propagation loss of approximately 5 dB/cm was mounted and aligned, using active alignment, in a sample holder that could be moved in all three dimensions to induce misalignments with a precision of the manual actuator of 1.3 μm. Using this setup, the in-plane 1 dB alignment tolerances were measured to be ±16 μm, while the 1 dB alignment tolerances in the longitudinal direction were found to be larger than ±150 μm. Without the addition of the microlenses, we expect an in-plane 1 dB alignment tolerance of ±3 μm based on simulations. Additionally, it could be demonstrated that the integration of the microlenses significantly improves the stability of the broadband grating couplers in regard to misalignment-induced intensity changes in the obtained transmission spectra.