Open AccessUltrasmall polarization splitter based on silicon wire waveguides
Author(s) -
Hiroshi Fukuda,
Koji Yamada,
Tai Tsuchizawa,
T. Watanabe,
Hiroyuki Satō,
S. Itabashi
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - Uncategorized
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.14.012401
Subject(s) - extinction ratio , optics , polarization (electrochemistry) , silicon , power dividers and directional couplers , materials science , beam splitter , insertion loss , splitter , waveform , optoelectronics , physics , voltage , wavelength , laser , chemistry , quantum mechanics
We describe an ultrasmall polarization splitter based on a simple directional coupler consisting of silicon wire waveguides. The size is only 7 x 16 microm(2), and the polarization extinction ratio is about 15 dB for a single coupler. A double-coupler structure improves the extinction ratio to over 20 dB. The excess loss is smaller than 0.5 dB for both types of device. In the device, the shape of the high-speed waveform is retained at any angle of polarization. Our polarization splitter represents a first step towards accomplishing an ultrasmall optical circuit with polarization diversity based on silicon wire waveguides.