High-efficiency and broadband photonic polarization rotator based on multilevel shape optimization

We report on a novel photonic polarization rotator design obtained by multilevel shape optimization. The numerical method consists of a topological optimization scheme, improving iteratively the efficiency of the component by modifying its shape on two discrete levels along the etching direction. We numerically show that, compared to state-of-the-art single-level shape optimization, the performances can be drastically improved for a given device length. Next, the polarization conversion efficiency can be further improved up to a computed value of 98.5% with less than 0.35 dB insertion losses on a 100 nm bandwidth for a 6  μm×1  μm footprint.