Surface micro-machined polarization beam splitting system

Summary form only given. The polarization beam splitter (PBS) is of great importance in optical applications nowadays, such as sensing, data storage, communication, imaging, and signal processing, where polarization states of the light are concerned. Conventionally, PBS is made of birefringent crystals, and is quite bulky and not easy for integration. Using MUMPS (multi-user MEMS process) design offered by MCNC (Mems Center at North Carolina), which is a commercial foundry providing three layer polysilicon surface micro-machining process. We have successfully realized an integrated polarization beam splitting system on a single Si chip. It is composed of one binary phase Fresnel lens to collimate a 1.3 /spl mu/m laser beam out of a single mode fiber and a 3.5 /spl mu/m thick polysilicon thin film serving as the PBS.