Compact Broadband Polarizer
Compact broadband polarizer based on shallowly-etched silicon-on-insulator ridge optical waveguides
A new way to make broadband polarizers on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides is proposed, analyzed and characterized. By utilizing the huge polarization dependent loss of a shallowly-etched SOI ridge optical waveguide, a compact and simple optical polarizer based on a straight waveguide was demonstrated. The polarizer is fabricated on a 700nm-thick SOI wafer and then characterized by using a free-space optical system. The measured extinction ratio is as high as 25dB over a 100nm wavelength range for a 1mm-long polarizer.
The cross section of the optical waveguides.
The measured transmission spectrums for both polarizations.
