Improvement of polarization extinction in silicon waveguide devices

The SOI based waveguide devices are found to be highly polarization sensitive. Unwanted polarization excitations can be attenuated by integrating a TE- or TM-pass polarizer. A large attenuation of TM-polarized light has been observed when a thin film of metal is coated on the top of silicon rib waveguide, while TE-polarized light remains almost unaffected. The attenuation of TM-polarized light is attributed to the plasmonic absorption of the evanescent field in the metal cladding. Typically, with an Al cladding of thickness ～ 100 nm and a length of 1 mm on top of a single-mode (λ ～ 1550 nm) SOI rib waveguide structure, TE vs TM extinction ratio of ～ 15 dB has been obtained. Integrating such waveguide polarizers in a directional coupler and MZI based DWDM channel interleaver, we have also achieved an improvement in polarization extinction by ～ 15 dB.     

1.5μm Ti:LiNbO_3光波导TE_0模偏振器

在1.523μm波长He-Ne激光,对于Z切Ti扩散LiNbO_3光波导及其带有金属包覆/介质缓冲层的偏振器结构,理论上计算了单模波导的工艺参数和基模的吸收损耗系数.文中用TM_0模的共振吸收效应,在1.5μm波长首次研制成Ti:LiNbO_3光波导TE_0模偏振器.当器件长度为2mm和9mm时,其消光比分别为20dB和25dB.     

质子交换的新型集成光学TM通偏振器的研究

提出了用扩钛和质子交换相结合的方法在x-切,y-传的LiNbO3 衬底上制成TM 通集成光波导偏振器的新方案, 即在扩钛波导两侧的适当位置引入锯齿形的质子交换区。用二维BPM法分析了这类新型偏振器的消光特性, 给出了质子交换区几何形状以及质子交换区与扩钛波导之间的间隙对TE波消光比的影响, 给出了数值分析结果, 并得到了优于23 dB的实验结果     

High extinction ratio metal-insulator-semiconductor waveguide surface plasmon polariton polarizer

The attenuation characteristics of a multilayer metal clad GaAs-AlGaAs optical waveguide polarizer are theoretically investigated. The dispersion relations and field distribution of the multilayer structures are calculated for different geometrical parameters and material properties. The polarizer studied consists of a single mode finite/infinite metal clad GaAs-AlGaAs waveguide with a dielectric (SiO₂/Si₃N₄) buffer layer inserted between the metal and the waveguide.Conventionally, the TM polarized waves are found to exhibit an absorption peak at a particular buffer thickness (called critical buffer thickness).We shall show that the maximum TM absorption can be improved by a multiple factor up to 7 by choosing a buffer layer thicker than its critical value. This corresponds to an extinction ratio of 1470 dB for a polarizer length of 1 mm. Further, thicker buffers reduce the insertion losses and values as low as 0.1 dB can be obtained. The strong TM absorption in these structures is interpreted as resonant coupling of the guided mode to the lossy surface plasmon polariton supported by the thin metal film. Thicker buffer also reduces the TE losses (insertion losses) and hence increases the extinction ratio (ratio of TM to TE losses).This can be achieved by optimizing the buffer and the metal thicknesses. Another equally efficient polarizer can be designed by positioning a dielectric (same as buffer) layer (superstrate layer) above the metal film and then optimizing the buffer, metal and the superstrate thicknesses. We also show that the proposed polarizer with the superstrate layer is highly stable even when exposed to the extreme atmospheric changes.     

High-performance and fabrication friendly polarization demultiplexer

A compact and fabrication friendly polarization demultiplexer (P-DEMUX) is proposed and characterized to enable wavelength-division-multiplexing and polarization-division-multiplexing simultaneously. The proposed structure is composed of a polarization-selective microring resonator in ultrathin waveguide and two bus channels in the silicon nitride-silica-silicon horizontal slot waveguides. In the slot waveguide, the transverse electric (TE) mode propagates through the silicon layer, while the transverse magnetic (TM) mode is confined in the slot region. In the designed ultra-thin waveguide, the TM mode is cut-off. The effective indexes of the TE modes for ultrathin and slot waveguides have comparable values. Thanks for these distinguishing features, the input TE mode can be efficiently filtered through the ultra-thin microring at the resonant wavelength, while the TM mode can directly output from the through port. Simulation results show that the extinction ratio of the proposed P-DEMUX for TE and TM modes are 33.21 dB and 24.97 dB, and the insertion losses are 0.346 dB and 0.324 dB, respectively, at the wavelength of 1551.64 nm. Furthermore, the device shows a broad bandwidth ($>100$ nm) for an extinction ratio (ER) of $>20$ dB. In addition, the proposed P-DEMUX also has a good fabrication tolerance for the waveguide width variation of $-20$ nm$\le \Delta w_{\rm g}\le 20$ nm and the microring width variation of $-20$ nm$\le \Delta w_{\rm r}\le $20 nm for a low insertion loss of $<0.75$ dB and low ER of $<-18$ dB.     

1.5μm质子交换铌酸锂光波导TE0模偏振器

在１．５μｍ光波长，首次研制出质子交换铌酸锂光波导ＴＥ０模偏振器。器件由嵌在Ｔｉ扩散波导之间的一段质子交换波导构成，器件长度为２ｍｍ。实验测得，偏振器的消光比和带尾纤插入损耗分别为４２ｄＢ和４．３ｄＢ。     

On‐chip silicon 8‐channel hybrid (de)multiplexer enabling simultaneous mode‐ and polarization‐division‐multiplexing

An 8‐channel hybrid (de)multiplexer to simultaneously achieve mode‐ and polarization‐division‐(de)multiplexing is proposed and demonstrated experimentally on a silicon‐on‐insulator platform to improve the link capacity of an on‐chip optical interconnect. The present hybrid (de)multiplexer has four channels for each polarization. A polarization beam splitter based on a three‐waveguide coupler is used to combine/separate the fundamental modes of TE‐ and TM‐polarizations (TE₀ and TM₀). Six asymmetric directional couplers are cascaded for (de)multiplexing the high‐order modes (TE₁, TE₂, TE₃, TM₁, TM₂, and TM₃). The experimental results show all eight channels have low loss and low crosstalk (<−10 dB) over a ∼ 30 nm wavelength range.     

Double groove silicon grating polarizer in telecommunication wavelength band

In this paper, we propose an ultra broad band polarizer operating in the telecommunication wavelength band, this device consisting a double groove silicon grating is designed with using the inverse mathematical method and rigorous vector diffraction theory. It is shown from our calculations that the device presents extremely high reflection (R > 95%) for TE polarization light and high transmission (T > 95%) for TM polarization over ∼400 nm wavelength range, moreover, the extinction ratio is ∼30 in the central wavelength 1550 nm. Furthermore, it is found with rigorous coupled wave analysis (RCWA) that the extremely wide band property for TE polarization is due to the excitation of strong modulation guided modes in the design wavelength range.     

Wide band polarizer with suspended silicon grating

In this paper, we propose an ultra broadband polarizer operating in the telecommunication wavelength band; this device consisting a single silicon suspended resonant grating layer is designed with using the inverse mathematical method and rigorous vector diffraction theory. It is shown from our calculations that the device presents extremely high reflection (R > 98%) for TE polarization light and high transmission (T > 98%) for TM polarization over ∼330 nm wavelength range; moreover, the extinction ratio is ∼100 in the central wavelength 1550 nm. Furthermore, it is found with Rigorous Coupled Wave Analysis (RCWA) and near field distribution that the extremely wide band property for TE polarization is due to the excitation of strong modulation guided modes in the design wavelength range.     

Mid-infrared wire-grid polarizer with silicides

An infrared (IR) polarizer with tungsten silicide (WSi) wire grid was fabricated by two-beam interference exposure and reactive ion etching. To enhance TM transmittance, silicon monoxide was deposited between the WSi wire grid (400 nm period) and a Si substrate. The transmittance was over 80% in the 4-5 microm wavelength range. The ratio of TM and TE transmittances was over 100 (20 dB) in the 2.5-6 microm wavelength range. The fabricated polarizer has higher durability and better compatibility with microfabrication processes compared with conventional IR polarizers.     

Integrated optical cross strip polarizer concept

Passing across an abrupt junction from a thick vertically bimodal waveguide to a thinner single mode segment, guided light can undergo complete destructive interference, provided that the geometry and the phases of the modes in the initial segment are properly adjusted. We propose to employ this effect to realize a simple polarizer configuration, using a strip that is etched from a planar waveguide. A beam of light is made to pass the strip perpendicularly. The light enters from the single mode waveguide outside the strip into the strip segment, which is configured to support two modes. At the end of the strip, apart from reflections, the amount of power that is guided in the following lower segment depends on the local phases of the two modes. These phases are different for TE and TM light, hence we may expect a polarization dependent power transfer, resulting in polarizer performance for a properly selected geometry. The paper describes in detail the modeling of the device in terms of rigorous mode expansion. Design guidelines and tolerance requirements for geometric and material parameters are discussed. For typical Si₃N₄/SiO₂ materials, our calculations predict a peak performance of 34 dB polarization discrimination and 0.3 dB insertion loss for a device with a total length of about 12 m that selects TE polarization at a wavelength of 1.3 m.     

Dual-core leaky optical waveguide as an integrated-optic polarizer

We present a design of a dual-core leaky waveguide that can be used as an integrated-optic polarizer. The proposed polarizer works on the principle of mode filtering. The structure is characterized by two cores, namely core-1 and core-2 and a high index layer in the upper-most region, such a structure supports leaky modes. The leakage losses of the modes have been calculated by using the transfer matrix method (TMM). Single polarization operation is ensured by high differential leakage loss between fundamental TE and TM modes. We show TE-pass operation with 0.5 dB/mm loss in TE₀ mode and 13 dB/mm loss in TM₀ mode, and TM-pass operation with 0.36 dB/mm loss in TM₀ mode and 7.45 dB/mm loss in TE₀ mode. Besides single-polarization operation, single-mode operation of the structure is ensured by high leakage loss of all the other higher-order modes.     

Monolithically integrated 64‐channel silicon hybrid demultiplexer enabling simultaneous wavelength‐ and mode‐division‐multiplexing

A compact 64‐channel hybrid demultiplexer based on silicon‐on‐insulator nanowires is proposed and demonstrated experimentally to enable wavelength‐division‐multiplexing and mode‐division‐multiplexing simultaneously in order to realize an ultra‐large capacity on‐chip optical‐interconnect link. The present hybrid demultiplexer consists of a 4‐channel mode multiplexer constructed with cascaded asymmetrical directional‐couplers and two bi‐directional 17 × 17 arrayed‐waveguide gratings (AWGs) with 16 channels. Here each bi‐directional AWG is equivalent as two identical 1 × 16 AWGs. The measured excess loss and the crosstalk for the monolithically integrated 64‐channel hybrid demultiplexer are about ‐5 dB and ‐14 dB, respectively. Better performance can be achieved by minimizing the imperfections (particularly in AWGs) during the fabrication processes.

     

Theoretical reflective performance of a sandwiched two-layer grating polarizer

The reflective polarizer is described by a sandwiched two-layer grating with a metal slab. Such a new polarizer is aimed to improve the performance of a reflective grating-based polarizer. The grating is optimized with the usual duty cycle of 0.5, where TE and TM polarizations are reflected in the –1st and the 0th diffraction orders, respectively. With optimized grating parameters, the extinction ratio can reach 45.5 dB and 41.9 dB in two diffraction orders, which are greatly improved compared with the conventional reported surface grating polarizer with the simple structure. Attractive merits of the new design are high efficiency, high extinction ratio, wide incident wavelength bandwidth for TE polarization, and wide angular range for TM polarization. Numerical results are expected to open new opportunities for the design of a grating-based polarizer with the enhanced performance by the complicated grating configuration.     

Design of Metal-clad Ti: LiNbO_3 Polarizer

ＤｅｓｉｇｎｏｆＭｅｔａｌ－ｃｌａｄＴｉ：ＬｉＮｂＯ＿３ＰｏｌａｒｉｚｅｒＨＵＨ．Ｚ．，ＣＨＥＮＧＧ．（ＤｅｐａｒｔｍｅｎｔｏｆａｐｐｌｉｅｄＰｙｓｉｃｓ，ＴｉａｎｊｉｎＵｎｉｖｅｒｓｉｔｙ，Ｔｉａｎｊｉｎ３０００７２，Ｃｈｉｎａ）ＧＥＮＦ；ＳＯＮＧ...     

近红外亚波长硅光栅偏振器的设计

利用泄漏模共振效应以及等效介质理论设计出工作在近红外波段的一维亚波长硅光栅偏振器。采用散射矩阵方法和时域有限差分方法对结构进行设计和优化,模拟结果显示在正入射条件下,该偏振器在1284-1575nm波长范围内的消光比大于100（20dB）,而TM模的透射率高于98％。同时对该偏振器的角度特性以及制备容差进行了讨论,计算结果表明该偏振器具有较大的角度与制备容差。     

Real‐Time and Broadband Terahertz Wave Scattering Manipulation via Polarization‐Insensitive Conformal Graphene‐Based Coding Metasurfaces

Here, for the first time, the real‐time and broadband manipulation of terahertz (THz) waves are acquired by introducing a multifunctional graphene‐based coding metasurface (GBCM). The designed structure consists of subwavelength patterned graphene units whose operational statuses can be dynamically switched between two digital states of “0” and “1”. By engineering the spatial distribution of chemical potentials across the GBCM, various scattering patterns having single, two, four, and numerous reflection beams are elaborately achieved just within one planar structure. To compute the far‐field pattern of GBCM, an inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT) is established, providing a fast and efficient design method. The proposed GBCM provides a low reflection bellow ?10 dB over a broad frequency band ranging from 1 THz to 1.9 THz. In addition, the metasurface retains its low reflection behavior in a wide range of incident wave angles for both TE and TM polarizations. According to conformal invariance of graphene sheets, the stealth property of GBCM is well preserved while wrapping around a curved object. The proposed technique of real‐time scattering manipulation leads to multifunctional THz devices, opening new routes contributing to numerous applications such as imaging and stealth technology.     

Single polarization transmission in pedestal-supported silicon waveguides

In this Letter, properties of a pedestal-supported silicon waveguide are investigated, showing that it supports single polarization transmission. The pedestal is fabricated easily through a wet-etching process on strip waveguides. Theoretical analysis shows that this property is due to the leakage of quasi-TM mode when the pedestal width is small. A polarization extinction ratio larger than 20 dB at 1550 nm is measured in the pedestal waveguide sample, demonstrating single polarization transmission property experimentally. Thanks to its large single polarization transmission bandwidth, robustness in fabrication tolerance, and simple fabrication process, pedestal waveguides will have potential applications as simple silicon-integrated polarizers.     

紧凑型圆极化模式转换器

 提出了一种结构紧凑的、能将圆波导TM01模或同轴波导TEM模转换为圆极化TE₁₁模的高功率微波模式转换器。该转换器由前后2个十字转门波导结对接组成,前者首先把圆波导TM₀₁模转变为4个矩形波导中的TE₁₀模,4个矩形波导的长度不等;后者再把4个经过不同相位延迟的矩形波导TE₁₀模转变为圆波导中的圆极化TE₁₁模。对所设计的1.75 GHz模式转换器进行了仿真研究,在中心频率上,该模式转换器转换效率为99%,轴比为0.03 dB;在1.575~1.900 GHz的频率范围内,转换效率大于90%,轴比小于2.5 dB,对应带宽为18.6%。     

Theoretical study of polymeric metal clad optical waveguide polarizer

Planar optical waveguides consisting of thin dielectric films and buffer layers with metal cladding have been investigated theoretically. A computer program was written to calculate the exact zeroes of complex eigenvalue equation for TE and TM modes in multilayer metal clad waveguide polarizer. Numerical results and illustrations are given for Polycarbonate waveguide with other polymers as buffer and Al, Ag and Au as cladding metals at . It is also shown that, using thin (finite) films of metal produce more efficient polarizers as compared to semi-infinite metal films. Effect of low index buffer layer on attenuation of TM/TE modes is also investigated.