A polarization-independent depolarizer with high isolation

A novel optical passive device combining the abilities of isolation and depolarization, named isolating depolarizer here, is presented. It would be used in polarization sensitive systems to restrain the polarization-dependent noise and also isolate the light in the reverse direction. For the DFB laser with linewidth of 0.1nm, experiment results show that the output degree of polarization, insertion loss and polarization dependent loss of the device are 3.2%, 1.35dB and 0.1dB, respectively. In the wavelength range of 1550±20nm, the minimum isolation of the device is 34.5dB. The device proposed here would be a compact and low-cost alternative when both depolarization and isolation are required simultaneously.