Low-loss ultracompact transverse-magnetic-pass polarizer with a silicon subwavelength grating waveguide.

An ultracompact and low-loss TM-pass polarizer on silicon is proposed and demonstrated experimentally with a subwavelength-grating (SWG) waveguide. The SWG waveguide is designed to support Bloch mode for TM polarization so that the incident TM-polarized light goes through the SWG waveguide with very low excess loss. On the other hand, for TE polarization, the SWG waveguide works as a Bragg reflector, and consequently the incident TE-polarized light is reflected. For a fabricated ∼9  μm long polarizer (with the period number N=20), the measured extinction ratio is ∼27  dB and the excess loss is ∼0.5  dB at the central wavelength 1550 nm. The bandwidth to achieve an extinction ratio of 20 dB is about 60 nm (from 1520 to 1580 nm). When increasing the period number to N=40, the measured extinction ratio is up to 40 dB (which is not as high as the expected theoretical value 65 dB due to the limit of the measurement system).

[1]  Dan-Xia Xu,et al.  Polarization management for silicon photonic integrated circuits , 2013 .

[2]  Lech Wosinski,et al.  Ultracompact and broadband polarization beam splitter utilizing the evanescent coupling between a hybrid plasmonic waveguide and a silicon nanowire. , 2013, Optics letters.

[3]  P. Cheben,et al.  Subwavelength waveguide grating for mode conversion and light coupling in integrated optics. , 2006, Optics express.

[4]  C. Doerr,et al.  Compact polarization rotator on silicon for polarization-diversified circuits. , 2011, Optics letters.

[5]  R. Sinha,et al.  Design of a photonic band gap polarizer , 2006 .

[6]  C. M. Natarajan,et al.  On-chip quantum interference between silicon photon-pair sources , 2013, Nature Photonics.

[7]  J. Bowers,et al.  Passive technologies for future large-scale photonic integrated circuits on silicon: polarization handling, light non-reciprocity and loss reduction , 2012, Light: Science & Applications.

[8]  J. Aitchison,et al.  Compact and silicon-on-insulator-compatible hybrid plasmonic TE-pass polarizer. , 2012, Optics letters.

[9]  David J. Thomson,et al.  Silicon optical modulators , 2010 .

[10]  Siegfried Janz,et al.  Subwavelength grating periodic structures in silicon-on-insulator: a new type of microphotonic waveguide. , 2010, Optics express.

[11]  Huaxiang Yi,et al.  High extinction ratio polarization beam splitter with multimode interference coupler on SOI , 2013 .

[12]  I. Avrutsky,et al.  Integrated Optical Polarizer for Silicon-on-Insulator Waveguides Using Evanescent Wave Coupling to Gap Plasmon–Polaritons , 2008, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[13]  Siegfried Janz,et al.  Refractive index engineering with subwavelength gratings for efficient microphotonic couplers and planar waveguide multiplexers. , 2010, Optics letters.

[14]  L. Canham,et al.  Vapor sensing using the optical properties of porous silicon Bragg mirrors , 1999 .

[15]  Sailing He,et al.  Theoretical Investigation for Reducing Polarization Sensitivity in Si-Nanowire-Based Arrayed-Waveguide Grating (de)Multiplexer With Polarization-Beam-Splitters and Reflectors , 2009, IEEE Journal of Quantum Electronics.

[16]  Geert Morthier,et al.  An ultra-small, low power all-optical flip-flop memory on a silicon chip , 2010 .

[17]  Mohammad Mojahedi,et al.  Compact hybrid TM-pass polarizer for silicon-on-insulator platform. , 2011, Applied optics.

[18]  B. Lamontagne,et al.  Athermal silicon waveguides with bridged subwavelength gratings for TE and TM polarizations. , 2012, Optics express.

[19]  Daoxin Dai,et al.  Ultrasmall Si-nanowire-based polarization rotator , 2008 .

[20]  Yurii A. Vlasov,et al.  Mid-infrared optical parametric amplifier using silicon nanophotonic waveguides , 2010, 1001.1533.

[21]  J. Aitchison,et al.  Experimental demonstration of a hybrid plasmonic transverse electric pass polarizer for a silicon-on-insulator platform. , 2012, Optics letters.

[22]  Minghao Qi,et al.  Copper nanorod array assisted silicon waveguide polarization beam splitter. , 2014, Optics express.

[23]  Daoxin Dai,et al.  Ultra-compact and ultra-broadband TE-pass polarizer with a silicon hybrid plasmonic waveguide , 2014, Photonics West - Optoelectronic Materials and Devices.

[24]  Corrections to "Silicon-Based 2-D Slab Photonic Crystal TM Polarizer at Telecommunication Wavelength" , 2008 .

[25]  Qian Wang,et al.  Ultracompact TM-Pass Silicon Nanophotonic Waveguide Polarizer and Design , 2010, IEEE Photonics Journal.

[26]  Siegfried Janz,et al.  Subwavelength grating crossings for silicon wire waveguides. , 2010, Optics express.

[27]  Sailing He,et al.  A silicon-based hybrid plasmonic waveguide with a metal cap for a nano-scale light confinement. , 2009, Optics express.

[28]  John E Bowers,et al.  Compact broadband polarizer based on shallowly-etched silicon-on-insulator ridge optical waveguides , 2010, 2011 Optical Fiber Communication Conference and Exposition and the National Fiber Optic Engineers Conference.

[29]  J. Bowers,et al.  Novel ultra-short and ultra-broadband polarization beam splitter based on a bent directional coupler. , 2011, Optics express.