Polymer microring coupledresonator optical waveguides

Abstract—We present measurements of the transmission and dispersion properties of coupled-resonator optical waveguides (CROWs) consisting of weakly coupled polymer microring res-onators. The fabrication and the measurement methods of the CROWs are discussed as well. The experimental results agree well with the theoretical loss, waveguide dispersion, group delay, group velocity, and group-velocity dispersion (GVD). The intrinsic qual-ity factors of the microrings were about 1.5 × 104 to 1.8 × 104, and group delays greater than 100 ps were measured with a GVD between −70 and 100 ps/(nm · resonator). With clear and simple spectral responses and without a need for the tuning of the resonators, the polymer microring CROWs demonstrate the prac-ticability of using a large number of microresonators to control the propagation of optical waves. Index Terms—Microresonators, optical polymers, optical wave-guides, periodic structures. I