Self-Aligning Sockets for Packaging Multicore Fibers to Photonic Integrated Circuits

The low-loss interconnection of multicore fiber with other fibers or photonic integrated circuits poses significant challenges in photonic packaging. Femtosecond laser processing has been harnessed here to combine three-dimensional writing of low-loss optical waveguides with laser-guided etching of self-aligning fiber sockets. The silica platform facilitated efficient packaging of multicore and single-core fibers into the underlying photonic circuitry, providing submicron registration of the waveguide cores. The direct writing approach offers facile connectivity of specialty fiber types with high-bandwidth optical links, high channel-density integrated chips, and micro-scale sensors.