Design and Performance Study of a Compact SOI Polarization Rotator at 1.55 μm

Author

Barh, Ajanta ; Rahman, B.M.A. ; Varshney, R.K. ; Pal, Bishnu P.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Phys., Indian Inst. of Technol. Delhi, New Delhi, India

Volume

31

Issue

23

fYear

2013

fDate

Dec.1, 2013

Firstpage

3687

Lastpage

3693

Abstract

We numerically design a compact silicon (Si) based polarization rotator (PR) by exploiting power coupling through phase matching between the TM mode of a Si strip waveguide (WG) and TE mode of a Si-air vertical slot WG. In such structures, the coupling occurs due to horizontal structural asymmetries and extremely high modal hybridness due to high refractive index contrast of Si-on-insulator (SOI) structure. Design parameters of the coupler have been optimized to achieve a compact PR of ~135 μm length at the telecommunication wavelength of 1.55 μm. Maximum power coupling efficiency Cm, which is studied by examining the transmittance of light, is achieved as high as 80% for both polarization conversions. Fabrication tolerances and the band width of operation of the designed PR have also been studied.

Keywords

integrated optoelectronics; light polarisation; numerical analysis; optical communication equipment; optical couplers; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; optical phase matching; optical rotation; optical waveguides; refractive index; silicon-on-insulator; Si; Si-air vertical slot WG; Si-on-insulator structure; TE mode; TM mode; compact SOI polarization rotator; design parameters; fabrication tolerances; horizontal structural asymmetries; light transmittance; modal hybridness; numerical design; optimized coupler; phase matching; polarization conversions; power coupling efficiency; refractive index contrast; strip waveguide; telecommunication wavelength; wavelength 1.55 mum; Couplings; Frequency conversion; Indexes; Optical waveguides; Silicon; Strips; Polarization sensitive device; si-on-insulator (SOI) waveguides; silicon photonics; slot waveguides;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2013.2286859

Filename

6645405