Open AccessFemtosecond laser fabrication of birefringent directional couplers as polarization beam splitters in fused silica
Author(s) -
Luís A. Fernandes,
Jason R. Grenier,
Peter R. Herman,
J. S. Aitchison,
Paulo Marques
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
optics express
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.394
H-Index - 271
ISSN - 1094-4087
DOI - 10.1364/oe.19.011992
Subject(s) - optics , birefringence , materials science , beam splitter , femtosecond , power dividers and directional couplers , laser , polarization (electrochemistry) , optoelectronics , extinction ratio , grating , wavelength , physics , chemistry
Integrated polarization beam splitters based on birefringent directional couplers are demonstrated. The devices are fabricated in bulk fused silica glass by femtosecond laser writing (300 fs, 150 nJ at 500 kHz, 522 nm). The birefringence was measured from the spectral splitting of the Bragg grating resonances associated with the vertically and horizontally polarized modes. Polarization splitting directional couplers were designed and demonstrated with 0.5 dB/cm propagation losses and -19 dB and -24 dB extinction ratios for the polarization splitting.