Compact Polarization Beam Splitter Using an Asymmetrical Mach–Zehnder Interferometer Based on Silicon-on-Insulator Waveguides

Author

Dai, Daoxin ; Wang, Zhi ; Peters, Jon ; Bowers, John E.

Volume

24

Issue

8

fYear

2012

fDate

4/15/2012 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

673

Lastpage

675

Abstract

A compact polarization beam splitter based on an asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometer (MZI) on a sub-micron silicon-on-insulator platform is demonstrated experimentally. The present MZI polarization beam splitter (PBS) is fabricated with a double-etching process and the deeply-etched region includes the MZI arms and the multimode- interference (MMI) couplers. In this way, the birefringence of the MZI arms and the power splitting ratio of the MMI coupler become insensitive to the etching depth, which makes the fabrication easier. The 2×2 MMI couplers are optimized to be polarization-insensitive and have a balanced ratio (50:50) for both polarizations. The measured extinction ratio of the fabricated MZI PBS is higher than 10 dB in the wavelength range from 1.54 to 1.58 μm.

Keywords

Mach-Zehnder interferometers; birefringence; etching; integrated optics; optical beam splitters; optical couplers; optical fabrication; optical waveguides; silicon-on-insulator; asymmetrical Mach-Zehnder interferometer; birefringence; deeply-etched region; double etching process; etching depth; multimode-interference couplers; polarization beam splitter; power splitting ratio; silicon-on-insulator waveguides; wavelength 1.54 mum to 1.58 mum; Couplers; Couplings; Etching; Optical waveguides; Photonics; Silicon; Silicon on insulator technology; Mach–Zehnder interferometer (MZI); polarization beam splitter; power splitter; silicon-on-insulator (SOI);

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2012.2184530

Filename

6132406