Abstract
We demonstrate various silicon-on-insulator polarization management structures based on a polarization rotator-splitter that uses a bi-level taper TM0-TE1 mode converter. The designs are fully compatible with standard active silicon photonics platforms with no new levels required and were implemented in the IME baseline and IME-OpSIS silicon photonics processes. We demonstrate a polarization rotator-splitter with polarization crosstalk < -13 dB over a bandwidth of 50 nm. Then, we improve the crosstalk to < -22 dB over a bandwidth of 80 nm by integrating the polarization rotator-splitter with directional coupler polarization filters. Finally, we demonstrate a polarization controller by integrating the polarization rotator-splitters with directional couplers, thermal tuners, and PIN diode phase shifters.
Highlights
Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) is becoming a common platform for integrated photonic circuits because the high refractive index contrast enables compact devices and the growing availability of foundry services allows complex silicon photonic chips to be fabricated at low costs [1, 2]
Because the polarization of the input light to a chip from an optical fiber is not usually fixed, polarization transparent photonic devices and circuits are needed at the receiver and along an optical communication link
A more optimal design that has low polarization crosstalk, low insertion loss, and a broad bandwidth will likely involve optimizing our polarization rotatorsplitter (PRS) design using the methods we described at the end of Section 2.2 and cascading the PRSs
Summary
Silicon-on-insulator (SOI) is becoming a common platform for integrated photonic circuits because the high refractive index contrast enables compact devices and the growing availability of foundry services allows complex silicon photonic chips to be fabricated at low costs [1, 2]. Because the polarization of the input light to a chip from an optical fiber is not usually fixed, polarization transparent photonic devices and circuits are needed at the receiver and along an optical communication link To this end, polarization diversity can be implemented [3,4,5]. A challenge for polarization splitters and rotators in SOI is that they often require high aspect ratio features, extra layers, or an air cladding [3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11], which are not compatible with common foundry processes. The compatibility with standard foundry processes enables us to demonstrate the PRS and an active polarization controller using the IME baseline and IME-OpSIS silicon photonics processes [12,13,14]. TE1 Hybridized 10.(4450) 125(475) 250(500) 375(525) 500(550) Partially−etched Si fin width (Si rib width) (nm)
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