Novel polarization beam splitter with a tolerance to large random disorder

Abstract

We propose a design for a simple broad-angle polarization beam splitter (PBS) consisting of two rows of dielectric cylinders with different space periods. The finite-difference time-domain method simulations show that TM polarized light is reflected totally by this PBS but TE polarized light passes through it freely in a broad incident angle range (from −50° to 50°). The PBS can work over a wide frequency range (from 0.22 × (c/a) to 0.28 × (c/a)) with a high efficiency. Moreover, the PBS structure has a novel capability of tolerance to large random disorder, which is very advantageous for practical applications. Even when a random disorder of 15%a (a is space period) is introduced into the radius and position of each cylinder, the PBS structure can still maintain almost the same good performance and high splitting efficiency.