Closed Research Institutes

Photonic Device Simulation Research Institute

Closed Research Institutes

(The positions of researchers, etc. are those at the time of establishment.

Principal Investigator YAMAUCHI Junji Professor, Faculty of Engineering
Research Field Information and Communication Engineering
Research Outline Optical communication technology has made remarkable progress in recent years. Dielectric devices with various functions are required to support high-speed and large-capacity communications. For example, in wavelength division multiplexing communications, which are currently in practical use, the device that combines or divides different wavelengths (wavelength multiplexer) is the key device that determines performance. As communication capacity increases, research into higher-density wavelength division multiplexing is becoming more active. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to design and fabricate photonic devices such as wavelength multiplexers and demultiplexers more precisely than before. Fortunately, improvements in dielectric fabrication and manufacturing technologies have enabled the microfabrication required for various high-performance photonic devices. Therefore, there is an increasing need to accurately analyze, evaluate, and design device characteristics in advance in order to reduce manufacturing costs.
Simulation technology is essential for this purpose. The applicants have already made various achievements in the simulation of photonic devices. For example, the beam propagation method, which simulates the propagation of light waves in a dielectric waveguide, has been successfully improved in terms of speed and accuracy. Specifically, we have developed a scalar scheme that achieves fourth-order accuracy for spatial gradients, a power-conserving scheme that takes energy conservation into account, an arbitrary shape scheme that can handle models in which refractive index changes occur in the propagation direction, a semi-vector scheme that takes polarization dependence into account, and a full-vector scheme that takes polarization coupling into account. The scheme is based on a full-vector scheme that takes polarization coupling into account.
Furthermore, the existing beam propagation method has the disadvantage that it cannot handle reflected waves, but we have overcome this disadvantage by developing a time-domain beam propagation method. In addition, we have been working on the application of the time-domain difference (FDTD) method to photonic devices, which has been used in the microwave region until now, and have made various improvements to address the unique problems in optical waveguides. For example, the hybrid analysis method of beam propagation and FDTD, which is now widely used, was proposed by the applicant. As a result of these achievements, the number of invited lectures from domestic and foreign academic societies and companies has been increasing. The number of technical consultations on photonic device simulation has also increased rapidly.
Against this background, we are establishing the Research Institute for Photonic Device Simulation in order to expand our research to a more advanced level and at the same time to provide opportunities to teach our accumulated technologies to the outside world.
Specific research goals are as follows
  1. Improvement of accuracy and speed of the beam propagation method
  2. Generalization of the imaginary-axis beam propagation method
  3. Development of FDTD method suitable for arbitrary boundaries
  4. Reduction of loss in arrayed waveguide type wavelength multiplexers
  5. Polarization-independent multilayer wavelength filter
  6. Establishment of low-loss design method for Y-branch waveguides
  7. Development of waveguide application using photonic band gap
  8. Development of ultra-fast simulation technology
Researcher Hisamatsu NAKANO, Professor, Faculty of Engineering
HORIBATA Yasuyoshi, Professor, Faculty of Engineering
LI Lei, Professor, Faculty of Engineering
SHIBAYAMA Jun, Assistant Professor, Faculty of Engineering
Specially Appointed Researcher Tetsuro Yabu Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Graduate School of Engineering, Osaka Prefecture University
Yoshihiro Naka Graduate School of Natural Science and Technology, Kumamoto University
Establishment period September 27, 2007 - September 26, 2012
Location Yamauchi Laboratory, Department of Electronics and Informatics, Faculty of Engineering