Integrated polarization beam splitter in high index contrast silicon-on-insulator waveguides

Abstract

We design, fabricate, and test a novel transverse-electric/transverse-magnetic (TE/TM) polarization beam splitter which is based on the dependence of birefringence on rib width in silicon-on-insulator waveguides. The polarization beam splitter has high TE to TM extinction ratio, low excess loss and wide operation bandwidth. The simple fabrication method involves only single etch step.