A novel polarization splitter based on dual-core hybrid photonic crystal fibers

Highly birefringent dual-core photonic crystal fibers (PCFs) can be used as a polarization splitter because the orthogonal polarization modes with dissimilar coupling lengths are easily separated from each other. Different from the traditional methods achieving high birefringence, a new highly birefringent hybrid PCF that guides light by both index guiding and bandgap guiding is proposed. Firstly, a novel polarization splitter based on this kind of dual-core hybrid PCF is designed. The transmission modes, coupling lengths for the two orthogonal polarizations and performance of the proposed polarization splitter are investigated and numerically analyzed. The results demonstrate that it is possible to obtain a 4.72-mm-long polarization splitter. The splitting ratio is better than −20 dB in a large wavelength range of 1.53-1.72 μm. Its bandwidth is about 190 nm.