1 × 2 broadband polarization-independent beam splitter based on air annular photonic crystal designed by a particle swarm optimization algorithm

Abstract

We propose a 1×2 broadband polarization-independent beam splitter based on air annular photonic crystals. The inner and outer radii of the air annular photonic crystals at the V-shaped waveguide side and corners can influence the transmittance and broadband performance. To improve the design efficiency and transmittance of the broadband splitter, particle swarm optimization was used to reverse-design the splitter. The performance of the designed splitter was studied, and the results show that the designed splitter has a wide bandwidth range of 1530–1565 nm. It exhibits a minimum transmittance of 84% and an average transmittance of 87.8% for TE polarization and a minimum transmittance of 81% and an average transmittance of 83% for TM polarization. The response times for both polarizations are below 0.7 ps. This device has promising applications in all-optical communication networks and photonic high-density integration.