Single etch grating couplers for mass fabrication with DUV lithography

Surface grating couplers enable efficient coupling of light between optical fibers and planar waveguide circuits. While traditional grating designs require two etch steps for efficient coupling to silicon-on-insulator waveguides, recently proposed subwavelength structured gratings can achieve the same coupling efficiencies with a single etch step, thereby significantly reducing fabrication complexity. Here we demonstrate that such couplers can …