US 12,345,878 B1
Multimodal photonic components
Jesse Lu, East Palo Alto, CA (US); Brian John Adolf, San Mateo, CA (US); and Martin Friedrich Schubert, Mountain View, CA (US)
Assigned to X Development LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by X Development LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Aug. 7, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/366,427.
Application 18/366,427 is a continuation of application No. 16/720,957, filed on Dec. 19, 2019, granted, now 11,835,715.
Int. Cl. G02B 27/00 (2006.01); G06F 30/23 (2020.01); G06F 111/10 (2020.01)
CPC G02B 27/0012 (2013.01) [G06F 30/23 (2020.01); G06F 2111/10 (2020.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method for designing a multimodal photonic component comprising one or more features, the method comprising:
defining a loss function within a simulation space composed of a plurality of voxels, the simulation space encompassing the one or more features of the multimodal photonic component, the loss function corresponding to a target output mode profile for a particular input mode profile, wherein the target output mode profile comprises a relationship between a set of operating conditions of the multimodal photonic component and one or more supported modes of the multimodal photonic component at a particular operative wavelength of the multimodal photonic component,
wherein mode wavelengths of the target output mode profile differ from mode wavelengths particular input mode profile based on a temperature change in the photonic component, and
wherein the loss function defines a plurality of structural parameters comprising a defect layer material, a number of defect layers, a waveguide material, a first reflectivity of the defect layer material, and a second reflectivity of the waveguide material that is different from the first reflectivity;
defining an initial structure for the one or more features in the simulation space, at least some of the voxels corresponding to each of the features and having a dimension smaller than a smallest operative wavelength of the multimodal photonic component;
determining, using a computer system, values for the plurality of structural parameters for each of the one or more features using a finite-difference time domain solver to solve Maxwell's equations so that a loss determined according to the loss function is within a threshold loss, wherein the plurality of structural parameters correspond to a distributed Bragg reflector structure of the multimodal photonic component; and
defining a final structure of the one or more features based on the values for the plurality of structural parameters.