Low crosstalk silicon arrayed waveguide gratings for on-chip optical multiplexing

In this work, we report on the modeling and the experimental characterization of a 6×400 GHz silicon Arrayed Waveguide Grating (AWG). The design of the device is based on the reduction of the background noise. The good characteristics of the AWG demonstrate that unwanted reflections have a detrimental role on its performance. We demonstrate a smoothing of the output channel shape of the AWG, as well as a reduction of the crosstalk level from −20.6(1) dB to −24.4(1) dB.