Compact Optical Polarization Rotators Based on an Asymmetric Silicon Waveguide

Author

Lianxi Jia ; Tsung-Yang Liow ; Junfeng Song ; Xianshu Luo ; Ning Duan ; Sing Chee Koh ; Qing Fang ; Mingbin Yu ; Guoqiang Lo

Author_Institution

Inst. of Microelectron., Agency for Sci. Technol. & Res., Singapore, Singapore

Volume

25

Issue

22

fYear

2013

fDate

Nov.15, 2013

Firstpage

2229

Lastpage

2232

Abstract

We design and compare two kinds of polarization rotators based on a partially etched waveguide: 1) the quadrate pattern and 2) the tapered pattern in the partially etched area. The devices are fabricated on a commercially available 200-mm silicon on insulator wafer with a 340 nm-thick top silicon and a 2 μm-thick buried dioxide. The tapered design realizes a polarization extinction ratio of ~ 13.3 dB for transverse-electric (TE)-transverse-magnetic (TM) rotation and 14.8 dB for TM-TE rotation, respectively. Compared with the quadrate structure, the tapered structure has an insertion loss reduction of ~ 2 dB for the TE-polarized input light and 1 dB for the TM-polarized input light without affecting the rotation efficiency in the wavelength range of 1525-1610 nm. Furthermore, the effects of the fabrication errors are analyzed and the results explain well the disagreement between the simulation and experimental results.

Keywords

elemental semiconductors; etching; integrated optics; light polarisation; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical polarisers; optical rotation; optical waveguides; silicon; silicon-on-insulator; TM-TE rotation; asymmetric silicon waveguide; fabrication errors; insertion loss reduction; optical polarization rotators; partially etched waveguide; polarization extinction ratio; quadrate pattern; rotation efficiency; silicon-on-insulator wafer; size 2 mum; size 200 mm; tapered pattern; transverse-electric-transverse-magnetic rotation; wavelength 1525 nm to 1610 nm; Etching; Fabrication; Insertion loss; Optical polarization; Optical waveguide components; Silicon; Integrated optics devices; optical communications; waveguides;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2013.2284597

Filename

6620979