Abstract
We propose, simulate and experimentally demonstrate a method for realizing spatially-mapped birefringence onto integrated photonic devices and circuits. The fabrication method is based on applying a damascene-like process to dielectric film stacks to form anisotropic optical waveguides. An integrated polarizing beam-splitter (PBS) is realized with unprecedented performance: a record 0.52 octaves of fractional bandwidth (116 THz), maximum on-chip insertion loss of 1.4 ± 0.8 dB, and a minimum extinction ratio of 16 ± 3 dB, pushing it into the realm of wideband spectroscopy and imaging applications. Additionally, photonic structures such as polarization-selective beam-taps and polarization-selective microring resonators are demonstrated.
Highlights
Polarization-diverse transmitter and receiver architectures are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern integrated photonic systems
Polarization diversity has significant benefits for photonic systems targeted at sensing and imaging applications such as optical coherence tomography [2,3,4]. Another application for polarization-diverse integrated photonics is in remote spectroscopy
Optical polarimetry allows the precise determination of the phase state of clouds due to the polarization-dependent scattering of water crystals; the POLDER spaceborne instrument successfully conducted such measurements over a spectral band from 443 to 865 nm [7]
Summary
Polarization-diverse transmitter and receiver architectures are becoming increasingly prevalent in modern integrated photonic systems. Polarization diversity potentially enables a doubling of data bandwidth for a modest increase in chip size and little additional complexity. Typical components for this purpose include polarizers, polarizing beam-splitters (PBS) and polarization-splitter-rotators (PSR). Polarization diversity has significant benefits for photonic systems targeted at sensing and imaging applications such as optical coherence tomography [2,3,4]. A more general review of polarization-management approaches is available in [15] Such devices generally take advantage of the dissimilar electric field distribution inherent to the TE and TM modes of the waveguides involved, which in turn leads to modal birefringence. We introduce a powerful integrated photonic technique capable of meeting these challenges and opening the path for compact, spaceborne polarimetric instrumentation
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