A Compact Hybrid Plasmonic Polarization Rotator for Silicon-Based Slot Waveguides

Author

Yin Xu ; Jinbiao Xiao ; Xiaohan Sun

Author_Institution

Nat. Res. Center for Opt. Sensing Commun. Integrated Networking, Southeast Univ., Nanjing, China

Volume

26

Issue

16

fYear

2014

fDate

Aug.15, 15 2014

Firstpage

1609

Lastpage

1612

Abstract

A compact polarization rotator (PR) for silicon-based slot waveguides is proposed, where a metal strip of aluminum (Al) is embedded in its upper-claddings. With the features of asymmetric hybrid plasmonic waveguide induced by the metal strip, an optimal optical axis rotation angle of 45° is realized, leading to high polarization conversion efficiency (PCE). The numerical results show that a PR of 11.6 μm in length at the wavelength of 1.55 μm is achieved with the PCE and insertion loss of 97.6% and 0.86 dB for TM-to-TE conversion, respectively. In addition, fabrication tolerances to the structural parameters are investigated and field evolution along the propagation distance through the PR is demonstrated.

Keywords

aluminium; claddings; integrated optics; light polarisation; light propagation; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical polarisers; optical rotation; optical waveguides; plasmonics; silicon; Al; PCE; PR; Si; TM-to-TE conversion; aluminum; asymmetric hybrid plasmonic waveguide; compact hybrid plasmonic polarization rotator; fabrication tolerances; field evolution; insertion loss; loss 0.86 dB; metal strip; optimal optical axis rotation angle; polarization conversion efficiency; propagation distance; silicon-based slot waveguides; size 11.6 mum; structural parameters; upper-claddings; wavelength 1.55 mum; Indexes; Metals; Optical polarization; Optical waveguides; Optimized production technology; Plasmons; Strips; Integrated optical devices; polarization rotators; slot waveguides;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2014.2329021

Filename

6827189