Design of an octagon structure dual-core photonic crystal fiber polarization beam splitter with a liquid crystal filled central hole

Abstract

In this paper, an octagon structure dual-core photonic crystal fiber (OS-DC-PCF) polarization beam splitter (PBS) with a liquid crystal filled central hole is designed. The octagon lattice structure is simple and easy to fabricate. By filling the nematic liquid crystal into the central hole, the birefringence of the octagon structure can be enhanced, and the coupling lengths along the two polarization directions can be reduced. The full vector-finite element method is used to analyze the polarization and coupling characteristics, and the influences of different structural parameters on the extinction ratio (ER) of the PBS. The simulation results show that for the designed OS-DC-PCF PBS, the maximum ER is ∼91 dB, the splitting length is only 125μm, and the working bandwidth is up to 339 nm (1.493–1.832μm), covering the whole C+L+U communication bands. Moreover, it has good fabrication tolerances and anti-interference ability. It is believed that the designed OS-DC-PCF PBS can provide the critical device support for the future all-optical communication systems.