Crosstalk comparison of lattice-form optical interleaver with different coupler structures

Lattice circuit made from a cascade of couplers and delay-lines is a popular approach for optical interleaver based on planar lightwave circuit (PLC) technology. Different coupler structures can be employed in the lattice circuit, including 1-stage directional couplers (DCs), 4-stage DCs, and 2-stage multimode interference (MMI) couplers. We fabricated optical interleavers with above three coupler structures, respectively. The experimental results prove that the latter two coupler structures can help to reduce crosstalk, which meets the simulation results well.