Polarizing beam splitter of a deep-etched fused-silica grating

We described a highly efficient polarizing beam splitter (PBS) of a deep-etched binary-phase fused-silica grating, where TE- and TM-polarized waves are mainly diffracted in the -1st and 0th orders, respectively. To achieve a high extinction ratio and diffraction efficiency, the grating depth and period are optimized by using rigorous coupled-wave analysis, which can be well explained based on the modal method with effective indices of the modes for TE/TM polarization. Holographic recording technology and inductively coupled plasma etching are employed to fabricate the fused-silica PBS grating. Experimental results of diffraction efficiencies approaching 80% for a TE-polarized wave in the -1st order and more than 85% for a TM-polarized wave in the 0th order were obtained at a wavelength of 1550 nm. Because of its compact structure and simple fabrication process, which is suitable for mass reproduction, a deep-etched fused-silica grating as a PBS should be a useful device for practical applications.     

Polarizing beam splitter based on a double-layer subwavelength grating

A Si–ZnS double-layer subwavelength grating is theoretically used as a high-efficient polarizing beam splitter. To design this structure, the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) is applied to study the reflectivity and transmissivity for the TE and TM polarization, respectively. Simulation results show that both the zero-order reflection for TE polarization and the zero-order transmission for TM polarization can exceed 90% in a wide tunable working incident angle range from 48° to 72°. Moreover, the proposed polarizing beam splitter has a working wavelength that is in the range of 1500–1600 nm.     

Polarization beam splitter using a binary blazed grating coupler

A novel polarization beam splitter using a two-layer grating coupler is proposed and demonstrated. It can directly couple the normally incident light from fiber into two separate waveguides according to their polarization states while splitting them. It realizes high coupling efficiency and a good extinction ratio by using binary blazed grating couplers. The coupling length is less than 14 microm. The extinction ratio is better than 20 dB for both polarizations over a 40 nm wavelength range, and the coupling efficiencies for the two layers are 58% and 50%.     

Polarizing beam splitter of deep-etched triangular-groove fused-silica gratings

We investigated the use of a deep-etched fused-silica grating with triangular-shaped grooves as a highly efficient polarizing beam splitter (PBS). A triangular-groove PBS grating is designed at a wavelength of 1550 nm to be used in optical communication. When it is illuminated in Littrow mounting, the transmitted TE- and TM-polarized waves are mainly diffracted in the minus-first and zeroth orders, respectively. The design condition is based on the average differences of the grating mode indices, which is verified by using rigorous coupled-wave analysis. The designed PBS grating is highly efficient over the C+L band range for both TE and TM polarizations (>97.68%). It is shown that such a triangular-groove PBS grating can exhibit a higher diffraction efficiency, a larger extinction ratio, and less reflection loss than the binary-phase fused-silica PBS grating.     

Five-port beam splitter of a single-groove grating

A single-groove grating for five-port TE-polarization beam splitting under normal incidence at the wavelength of 1550 nm is presented. The transmitted diffraction efficiency of the gratings is over 94.5% with uniformity better than 2%. A physical view of diffraction inside the grating is presented by the simplified modal method(SMM).Initial parameters of the grating profiles are obtained by use of SMM and then optimized by employing rigorous coupled-wave analysis and the simulated annealing algorithm.     

Higher diffraction order photorefractive optical beam splitter

A higher diffraction order photorefractive (PR) optical beam splitter has been realized based on a PR higher diffraction order grating. In the experiments, the beam splitter was produced by two-wave coupling at a small incident angle in Fe:LiNbO₃ using the output from a He–Ne laser at 632.8 nm. An incident signal beam containing three different wavelengths (632.8, 532.0 and 488.0 nm) was split into multi-output beams by the beam splitter. The size of higher diffraction order is given and the influence of crystal thickness is discussed. Results show that the higher diffraction order PR optical beam splitter provides a practical method to split a multi-wavelength signal beam.     

Deep silicon grating as high-extinction-ratio polarizing beam splitter

A deep binary silicon grating as high-extinction-ratio reflective polarizing beam splitter （PBS） at the wavelength of 1550 nm is presented. The design is based on the phenomenon of total internal reflection （TIR） by using the rigorous coupled wave analysis （RCWA）. The extinction ratio of the rectangular PBS grating can reach 2.5~105 with the optimum grating period of 397 nm and groove depth of 1.092 μm. The efficiencies of TM-polarized wave in the 0th order and TE-polarized wave in the -1st order can both reach unity at the Littrow angle. Holographic recording technology and inductively coupled plasma （ICP） etching could be used to fabricate the silicon PBS grating.     

Polarizing beam splitter of two-layer dielectric rectangular transmission gratings in Littrow mounting

We theoretically investigated the design of polarizing beam splitters (PBS) of two-layer dielectric rectangular transmission gratings in Littrow mounting. The PBS grating is aimed to separate TE and TM polarized waves into two different transmitted orders, i.e. the 0th and −1st orders. The polarization-dependent diffraction process is analyzed by using a simplified modal method. The mode reflection and transmission at the interface of the two layers are illustrated. Design equations are given based on the average mode indices of the even and odd modes inside the grating region, which are verified by using rigorous coupled wave analysis. Moreover, with simulated annealing algorithm, two kinds of two-layer PBS gratings are optimized for operation over the C-band (1520-1570 nm). Compared with the single-layer transmission PBS gratings, such two-layer scheme exhibits a great flexibility of design. The PBSs of two-layer dielectric transmission gratings should be useful for practical applications.     

Modal analysis of deep-etched low-contrast two-port beam splitter grating

Modal analysis of a deep-etched low-contrast two-port beam splitter grating under Littrow mounting is presented. The guideline for the design of a subwavelength transmission fused-silica phase grating as high-efficiency grating, polarizing beam splitter (PBS), and two-port beam splitter, is summarized. As an example, a polarization-independent two-port beam splitter grating is designed at wavelength of 1064 nm. We firstly analyzed the physical essence of the grating by the simplified modal method. The guideline for the grating design and the approximate grating parameters are obtained. Then using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis (RCWA) with parameters varying around the approximate ones, optimum grating parameters can be determined. With the design guideline, the time for the rigorous calculation of the grating profile parameters can be reduced significantly.     

Polarization Sagnac interferometer with a reflective grating beam splitter

All-reflective interferometric gravitational-wave detector configurations with a diffraction grating as a power beam splitter have been proposed to reduce thermal lensing. We demonstrate the use of a diffraction grating as a polarization beam splitter in a zero-area polarization Sagnac interferometer.     

Wave-plate polarizing beam splitter based on a form-birefringent multilayer grating

We have fabricated a novel device that acts as a quarter-wave plate at normal incidence and as a polarizing beam splitter at an angle of incidence of ~40 deg . The device is made from a multilayer (SiO(2) /Si(3)N(4)) surface-relief zeroth-order one-dimensional grating with a period of 0.3 mum . The device is designed for an operating wavelength of 632.8 nm. We designed the device by using rigorous coupled-wave analysis and fabricated it by direct-write electron-beam lithography and reactive ion etching. Measurements confirmed the performance of the device as a wave plate and as a polarizing beam splitter.     

Reflective silicon binary diffraction grating for visible wavelengths

We introduce a device based on subwavelength resonant grating technology. Using a single lithography step we built a reflective binary grating that mimics the functionality of a blazed diffraction grating in a flat geometry. We have also demonstrated that efficient subwavelength resonant devices for visible wavelengths can be built using silicon.     

Broad band beam splitter based on the double-groove fused silica grating

In this paper, we propose a broad band 1 × 3 beam splitter operating in the telecommunication wavelength band under normal incidence, this device consisting of a double-groove fused silica 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 excellent beam splitter ability for TE polarization light with the average diffraction efficiencies is more than 95% over ∼100 nm wavelength range, moreover, the uniformity of our beam splitter is better than 2% in the whole wavelength band. Furthermore, the physical understanding of the diffraction behaviors taking place inside the beam splitter gratings can be explained by the modal method.     

Study on holographic grating diffraction for Laguerre--Gaussian beam generation

Laguerre-Gaussian beams, as a special model with spiral phase structure, have been intensively investigated. Holographic grating method is a convenient method of generating Laguerre-Gaussian beams and measuring their orbital angular momenta. But due to some inevitable adverse factors such as lateral displacement, angular deflection and elliptical incident profile of incident beam, the practical effectiveness should be reevaluated. This paper is devoted to the study on the influences of the abovementioned three adverse factors on the holographic grating method. The characteristics of the mode decomposition of diffractive order and the relative powers of the orbital angular momentum eigen-states are also given.     

二元矩形金属光栅衍射增强电磁理论

采用耦合波原理计算了TM波经过二元纳米量级金属光栅衍射的电磁场，研究了金属光栅的占空比、光栅深度及TM波入射角对衍射后的光栅表面电磁场的增强的影响，针对金属金、银做了探讨和分析，得出重要的结论. 关键词： 耦合波原理 金属光栅 衍射     

The design of a polarizing beam splitter made from a dielectric rectangular-groove grating

It has been reported that a polarizing beam splitter based on a rectangular-groove grating (a grating polarizing beam splitter) can be easily designed for specific applications using the modal method. In this paper, the eigenvalue equation of the modal method is transformed to a new form. Using this new form of the eigenvalue equation, it is shown that the design of a grating polarizing beam splitter can be independent of the incident wavelength. The period and the groove depth can be designed using values normalized to the incident wavelength, which apply to a range of wavelengths as long as the effects of dispersion can be neglected. Numerical simulations of fused silica gratings are presented and analyzed. It is concluded that the preferable choice for the grating period is 0.8–0.9 times the incident wavelength.     

Connecting-layer-based polarizing beam splitter grating with high efficiency for both TE and TM polarizations

We describe a novel polarizing beam splitter (PBS) of transmission connecting-layer-based grating, which can show high efficiency for TE polarization in the ?1st order and TM polarization in the 0th order. According to the modal method, grating duty cycle and period are prescribed to obtain high efficiency for TM polarization. Using the rigorous coupled-wave analysis, grating depth and thickness of the connecting layer are optimized to achieve high efficiency for TE polarization. The presented PBS has advantages of wideband properties for incident wavelength and angle. Most importantly, the efficiency is improved greatly for TE polarization compared with the reported PBS based on fused-silica grating.     

A broadband polarization-independent two-port beam splitter under normal incidence based on encapsulated metal-dielectric reflective grating

An encapsulated metal-dielectric reflective grating is presented for broadband polarization-independent twoport beam splitting under normal incidence at the central wavelength of 800 nm. Different from traditional two-port grating splitters in the resonant region, this grating splitter is capable of separating light energy into±1 storders with high efficiency in a broad waveband for both TE and TM polarizations. A unified method is proposed here for designing this grating splitter, which enables one to choose a grating structure quickly to realize an ultrabroad working waveband. The simulation results indicate that a bandwidth of 46.4 nm could be achieved for diffraction efficiency(defined as the ratio of the light energy diffracted only at the first order to the incident light energy) over 46% at the central wavelength of 800 nm. Moreover, the parameters of the grating structure can be flexibly adjusted with wavelengths using the unified method for various other applications, such as augmented reality, optical interconnections for computing, coherent beam combination, and complex vector beam shaping.     

Slow light beam splitter

We demonstrate a slow light beam splitter using rapid coherence transport in a wall-coated atomic vapor cell. We show that particles undergoing random and undirected classical motion can mediate coherent interactions between two or more optical modes. Coherence, written into atoms via electromagnetically induced transparency using an input optical signal at one transverse position, spreads out via ballistic atomic motion, is preserved by an antirelaxation wall coating, and is then retrieved in outgoing slow light signals in both the input channel and a spatially-separated second channel. The splitting ratio between the two output channels can be tuned by adjusting the laser power. The slow light beam splitter may improve quantum repeater performance and be useful as an all-optical dynamically reconfigurable router.