Micromachined polarization beam splitters for the visible spectrum

Author

Gupta, Kishan ; Choo, Hyuck ; Kim, Hanjun ; Muller, Richard S.

Author_Institution

Berkeley Sensor & Actuator Center, California Univ., Berkeley, CA, USA

fYear

2003

fDate

18-21 Aug. 2003

Firstpage

171

Lastpage

172

Abstract

Batch-processed polarization beam splitters (PBS) are built and characterized. PBS are important optical components used to separate the orthogonal TE and TM components of light. The devices are fabricated from thin-film, low-stress silicon nitride membranes and showed excellent performance. By stacking membranes and a triple-layer, PBS produce extinction ratios of 21 and 16 dB for reflected and transmitted light rays, respectively.

Keywords

dielectric thin films; light polarisation; membranes; micro-optics; micromechanical devices; optical beam splitters; optical fabrication; optical testing; silicon compounds; visible spectra; SiN; batch-processing; micromachining; optical components; orthogonal TE component; orthogonal TM component; polarization beam splitters; reflected light rays; silicon nitride membranes; silicon nitride thin-film; transmitted light rays; visible spectrum; Biomembranes; Extinction ratio; Insertion loss; Optical beam splitting; Optical films; Optical polarization; Semiconductor thin films; Silicon; Tellurium; Thin film devices;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Optical MEMS, 2003 IEEE/LEOS International Conference on

Print_ISBN

0-7803-7830-X

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/OMEMS.2003.1233520

Filename

1233520